M09-27-16 N40 Verbatim
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A P P E A R A N C E S:
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Los Gatos Town Council: Barbara Spector, Mayor
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Marico Sayoc, Vice Mayor
Marcia Jensen, Council Member
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Steven Leonardis, Council Mem.
Rob Rennie, Council Member
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Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti
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Planning Manager: Joel Paulson
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Town Attorney: Robert Schultz
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Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin
(510) 337-1558
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P R O C E E D I N G S:
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Calling the meeting to order.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the September 27, 2016
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special meeting of the Town of Los Gatos. If you haven’t
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already done so, please silence your devices. Madam Clerk,
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please call the roll.
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SHELLEY NEIS: Thank you, and good evening.
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Council Member Marcia Jensen.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Here.
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SHELLEY NEIS: Council Member Rob Rennie.
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Here.
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SHELLEY NEIS: Council Member Steve Leonardis.
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COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Here.
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SHELLEY NEIS: Vice Mayor Marico Sayoc.
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VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Here.
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SHELLEY NEIS: Mayor and Chair Barbara Spector.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Here. If you’ll please stand and
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join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.
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(Pledge is recited.)
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Next item on our agenda before we
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get to other business is Verbal Communications. I have no
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cards. Does anyone in the audience wish to address us on an
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item that is not on our agenda? No cards, no one coming
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forward.
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We will now move on to other business, which is
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our one agenda item: Discuss potential amendments to the
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North 40 Specific Plan. The way we will be proceeding this
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evening is as we always do. Council will begin with
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questions of Staff, if any, and then we will go to our
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testimony, and we do have cards. If you wish to address us
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on this agenda item and have not already submitted a card,
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please do so. Staff Report.
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JOEL PAULSON: Staff does not have anything to
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add to what’s been presented.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: That’s a short report. Do we have
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questions of Staff? Ms. Jensen.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I have just preliminary
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questions I want to make sure that I understand before we
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go forward, so it’s a couple, probably for Mr. Schultz.
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The first thing I wanted to understand is that
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the application that was denied, if that applicant or a
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group of applicants comes back with an amended application
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or takes a lawsuit and wins, or that application is
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evaluated in court, that is evaluated under the current
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Specific Plan, correct?
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: There were a few different
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scenarios there. Under the scenario where the application
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was denied, if they were to file suit and prevail, and
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depending on what the court did, they might remand it back
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for you for a decision in their favor. It would have to be
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evaluated on your current Specific Plan.
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If a new application comes in today, it would
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have to be reviewed under your Specific Plan. If a new
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application comes in after you make amendments, even if
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it’s the same group, Grosvenor, but if they filed a new
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application and that application comes in after you made
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amendments to the Specific Plan, they have to comply with
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those Specific Plan amendments.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Follow up?
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Yes.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: The current Applicants
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are not required to file any new application, correct?
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: No, they’re not required to.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: And is it correct that
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from now until the time the Specific Plan is amended, if it
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is amended, anyone who is a landowner on that property can
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come in and file an application under the current plan?
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: That’s correct.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Seeing none, we
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will go to the public testimony. I said I do have cards. If
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you intend to speak, submit a card. The first person is
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Barbara Dodson.
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BARBARA DODSON: Good evening, my name is Barbara
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Dodson; I live on Marchmont Dr.
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I hope that as you consider amending the Specific
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Plan you will consider reducing the allowable height for
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buildings, except for a possible hotel; consider reducing
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the overall sizes of the residential units; and think about
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rewriting the definition of open space.
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I think problems arise when we don’t follow our
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Town Code. That’s what’s happening here when we allow
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residential and other buildings to be 35’ tall. Our Town
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Code underpins the look and feel of our town and helps us
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retain our small town feel. Town Code Section 29 specifies
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the height of residential structures, including duplexes,
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as a maximum of 30’. Even this, I think, is too tall for
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residential structures for our town, so I hope that you
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will in fact call for a large number of the residences to
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be no higher than 25’, while allowing some to be 30’. For
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comparison, the Laurel Mews homes are all no higher than
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25’. This height seems more in keeping with the look and
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feel of our town and is likely to enhance opportunities for
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hillside views.
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I also hope that in order to enhance
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affordability and allow for more open space you will reduce
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the sizes specified for most of the residential units. I
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happen to have two millennials who are living very
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comfortably in homes that are roughly 1,100 square feet.
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They have one child each and are living in homes with three
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small bedrooms and one small bath. I, myself, grew up in a
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1,200 square foot home.
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I think that many of us who live in large homes
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have a distorted view of how much space young people, and
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also older people, really want and need. Nowadays,
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affordability is critical. I would like to think that our
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town will make it possible for people who are critical to
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our community and have moderate incomes, teachers,
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firefighters, nurses, police officers, to live in our town.
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Reducing the sizes of the residential units is a step we
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can take toward affordability.
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I’d also hope that a revised Specific Plan could
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redefine open space. The proposed development had more open
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space than was required, yet felt like it lacked both
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openness and space. I think this may have been because the
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current Specific Plan allows for inclusion under green
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space calculations private residential green space, parking
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strips, and planters. It also includes items that should be
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defined, since probably many others and I have no idea what
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they are; these are bioretention and drivable turf block. I
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think that open space calculations should be reserved
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exclusively for public open spaces.
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Thank you for your continued hard work on this
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important issue, and you’re willingness to reconsider the
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Specific Plan.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Questions? Seeing
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none.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Mayor?
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: After each speaker,
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should be ask questions that we have of Staff, or just
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write them down and save them up for after?
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MAYOR SPECTOR: For Staff, I would suggest we
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wait till the end.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Okay, thank you.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. All right, in order to
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keep the process moving I’m going to call the next three
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cards. David Weissman, Anne Robinson, and Chuck Coe. Mr.
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Weissman.
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DAVID WEISSMAN: Dave Weissman. I have a few
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disjointed comments.
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First of all, I appreciate the speed with which
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these hearings are moving along. Hopefully the developers
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will see the wisdom in trying to work with the Town and its
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citizens, and not going to court.
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Second of all, senior needs. I can’t believe that
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we’re still looking at having the senior units on the third
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floor. I don’t care if these units comply with building
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codes. During an emergency how are seniors that use walkers
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and wheelchairs going to get down three flights of stairs
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when elevators are out during a fire or an earthquake? They
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should be at ground level; it only makes common sense.
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Another point, low income units should be along
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with what is going on now in the discussions in San Jose
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and Palo Alto, and this was discussed in a Mercury News
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article on September 19. They are building 600 to 900
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square foot units, which will give them the same density
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but will leave a lot more potential open space.
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Another point, to count sidewalks and streets as
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open space and come up with a 40% open space figure, as was
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the case with Phase 1, defies logic. To me, open space is
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where I see plants growing and kids playing, not concrete
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and asphalt covered surfaces.
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My last point, Mr. Rennie expressed concern about
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wanting to have trees that are not as tall so that they
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don’t block out the views. Very simply, we can use coast
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live oaks. There are already a number of them growing on
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the site and they are mature. When live oaks are mature
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they don’t need water and they sort of self-limit their own
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heights to 30-40’. One does not have to worry about live
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oaks going to 60’. Maybe after 100 years that’s possible,
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but certainly not initially for the first 50 years.
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The oaks that are already on the site, if in fact
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those areas where those oaks occur would be subject to fill
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as was proposed in Phase 1, all those oaks would die. So
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keeping the surface level where it is is one way to save
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them, and we’ve already got a head start on them. Thank
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you.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Questions? Ms. Jensen.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you, Dr. Weissman.
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I know that you’re quite an advocate of preserving our
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hillsides and the natural landscape there. How do you see
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an open space where children can play as being consistent
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with drought tolerant planting and oak trees? What would
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you envision?
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DAVID WEISSMAN: I think you can go to Oak Meadow
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Park.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: There’s grass there.
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DAVID WEISSMAN: You’ve got grass, but in the
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summertime we can let the grass go, or we can water it
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enough to sort of keep it right on the edge, it can be
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brown; and there are grasses that also much more resistant
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to drought than typically grasses that have been used in
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the past; so I think those are all things that are
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consistent. We can get areas of plants that reflect the
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chaparral that we have here, which are drought resistant.
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And we’re bringing up our kids from the beginning that
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water is a limited resource, and I think we need to treat
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it as such.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
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Dr. Weissman, the last time I walked the site with the
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Applicant I noted that there were several quite beautiful
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trees out there, and so we had a discussion about where the
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fill was going to be. It was going to be everywhere, and
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they seemed to say that there’s no way to not fill and get
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the drainage right and so forth, and I think that’s a much
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longer discussion, but instead I had a discussion about
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transplanting trees. Could we move any of the trees? I
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guess my question for you is what is your opinion on the
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ability to move some of the oak trees?
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DAVID WEISSMAN: Certainly the older and bigger
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an oak tree is the more difficult it is to move it, and
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we’ve seen that where developers have come in with projects
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in the hillsides, have said we’re going to move these
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trees, everybody goes yay developer, they move the tree,
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and the tree dies. It’s a difficult issue.
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You’ve had the advantage of being able to walk
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the site. As the public, we can’t, because that whole site
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has been fenced in. The trees that I can see are the trees
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that are along the roadways. None of us can get in and
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actually walk among the story poles. Hopefully when this
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comes back next time and story poles go up we’ll have open
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houses so that the public can get onto the site and
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actually look at what’s being proposed, instead of trying
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to look at it from Highway 17.
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Seeing none,
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thank you. Anne Robinson, Chuck Coe, Roy Moses.
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ANNE ROBINSON: Anne Robinson, Charter Oaks.
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First, I’d like to thank you all for your time and your
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service.
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Two weeks ago I attended the church service for
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the 150 anniversary of the Los Gatos United Methodist
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Church. Pastor Jenn placed a stone on the altar for each
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historical event that had an impact and influenced the
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direction of the church. At the end of the service six
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stones were placed on the altar. Six stones in 150 years.
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I feel the North 40 development is one of those
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stones in the history of Los Gatos. The North 40 is one of
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the most significant, if not most significant,
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development in the history of Los Gatos. I am grateful that
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the Town Council is taking the time to get it right and not
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bow to the pressures of the developer.
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I don’t have the answers as to what is the best
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development for our community on the North 40, but I do
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have the following list of suggestions.
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No housing in the cancer risk area along the
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Highway 17 freeway, but office with fixed windows and high-
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efficiency filtration HVAC in that area.
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Spread the housing across the development. Allow
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smaller housing that are more affordable.
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Require underground parking, and no tandem
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parking, to allow more open space.
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Provide appropriate housing for seniors, and I do
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agree with the previous speaker about having the senior
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housing on the first floor. I see a lot of seniors in my
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practice, and stairs, getting around in second stories and
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things, if there is an emergency it would be difficult for
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most of my patients.
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Modify the site plan and elevations to soften the
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linear, flat, square and cookie cutter appearance of the
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previous proposal by Grosvenor.
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In consideration for my suggestions, I would be
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open to having an increase in height in the Northern
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District, maybe 25% of that area in the Northern District
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for a hotel or something of that sort.
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Thank you for your considerations and looking at
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the amendments to the North 40 Specific Plan, and for
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continuing to hear our community’s comments, suggestions,
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and recommendations. Thank you.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Questions? Hold on. Mr. Rennie.
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
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You’ve been an advocate all along of don’t put houses near
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the highway. As we move into the Northern District you’re
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suggesting move houses all around. Now, once you get into
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the Northern District you’ve got highways on two sides, so
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it seems to me that’s an even worse area to put housing.
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Are you maybe suggesting we just barely put them over the
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transition zone border?
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ANNE ROBINSON: No, if you look at the
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Environmental Impact Report and you look at the site plan
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for the health hazards, the high cancer risk area is only
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along the 17 freeway. If you look at the 85 boundary
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there’s actually more open space between the North 40 and
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the highway. If you look along 17, there are eight lanes of
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traffic there. There is actually quite a bit more cars in
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that little section along 17 than there is along the 85
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boundary. There is actually a piece of land that is in
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between the northern boundary and the 85 freeway. There’s
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an off-ramp, but there’s more land between the major
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freeway.
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Thank you. Chuck
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Coe, Roy Moses, Jak Van Nada.
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CHUCK COE: Chuck Coe, Garden Hill Drive.
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I now understand that there is a state mandate to
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build 600 homes, whether the Town wants them or not. I
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certainly understand that the 320 would be a leap towards
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that goal.
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I’ve heard nothing about a mandate to build
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business, and I don’t think we need business in the North
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40. You have more than enough business now already and
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there is no need for the North 40 to compete with the
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Boulevard or downtown. You can hop across the street to
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Panera Bread, Office Depot, Ace Hardware, and up and down
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within walking distance you have medical up the kazoo, you
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have restaurants, markets, pharmacies, auto sales, service,
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and rental. There are a couple of nice toy stores, and
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Peet’s Coffee & Tea. There is even a tavern for those
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inclined. I see no evidence that the supply is falling
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short of the demand. The only lines I see on Los Gatos
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Boulevard are the cars, and maybe Panera Bread, and one
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Panera is enough. I would suggest that if we eliminate the
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business you would have the room to expand the housing,
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reduce densities, reduce heights, and allow for more open
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space, playgrounds, and pocket parks.
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I know that there is a development just to the
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west of the JCC. I have not been inside it, but from the
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outside it looks very nice, it looks like a very nice place
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to live. I don’t think there’s any business in there, and I
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think that would be a good model for any residences that
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are built within the North 40.
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Before my family moved to Brooklyn we lived in
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the Rockaway Beach area of New York City, and that was a
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very nice place to live. When my father wanted to buy a
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newspaper we would walk six or seven blocks to a business
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area, and that was close enough, we didn’t need it any
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closer, and the services that are on the Boulevard now are
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within that distance.
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I urge you to build to the mandate and let the
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rest of it be.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. I see no questions.
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Roy Moses, Jak Van Nada, Susan Buxton.
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ROY MOSES: Roy Moses, La Croix Court since 1969.
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Mayor and Council Members, I, my family, friends,
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and neighbors would really like to thank you sincerely for
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your continued work in caring for the valid desires,
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wishes, and needs of the citizenry. We are here to support
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you in upholding our values as they are presented to you,
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and especially in guiding the Town’s Staff and the Planning
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Commission to accomplish the wishes of your consistent
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constituency. You are the ones who are hearing our voices
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and have been making your decisions based on what is best
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for our community and the Town of Los Gatos.
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Thank you for denying the first application for
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the North 20, which was totally void of listening to the
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Specific Plan for the North 40 and totally did not adhere
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to the Mission Statement. Now we need to take the next step
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in trying to clarify in writing what the Specific Plan and
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the Mission Statement really say and mean to the citizens
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of the Town of Los Gatos. We have initiated the process by
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sending you our suggested Specific Plan revisions, which I
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believe you have in your possession. I would like to
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address one area, and a concerned business owner will
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present another view.
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It has been estimated that there is approximately
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270,000 square feet of commercial space currently in the
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downtown area, and that there is another 500,000 square
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feet of proposed commercial space for the whole of the
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North 40, which is a lot of space to fill with merchants.
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My concern is that with that much space there will be a
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saturation of similar businesses with not enough people to
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support all of them in time, which will eventually turn
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this area into a ghost town with small, vacant stores.
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In my humble opinion, you need a heck of a lot of
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people to support this kind of square footage, and where
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are they going to come from? Look at your map. We are in
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the perimeter outskirts of the Silicon Valley on a road
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leading into the Santa Cruz Mountains and headed to the
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beach. I do not believe that 500,000 square feet will
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survive in this area. Then what will happen? The landlords
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will demand that the big box companies and the dime-a-dozen
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hamburger joints fill all the spaces, and there goes the
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character, look, and feel of Los Gatos.
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My suggestion is to reduce the commercial space
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in the North 40 to less than 250,000 square feet and
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consider adding other types of housing laid out in the
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Specific Plan, especially more senior housing. We could
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really use a Los Gatos Community Center, and this would be
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a perfect spot for that venue.
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Two more notes. I encourage all the citizens of
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Los Gatos to regularly start coming to some of the Town
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Council and Planning Commission meetings and participate in
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the agendas and help protect our town with your thoughts
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and concerns when projects are being planned and
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introduced.
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I also encourage many of your who share education
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as a passion to attend some of the School Board meetings
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for your school district to track what is developing in our
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area, and to definitely encourage our administrators and
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others to strongly negotiate with the developers a sound
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financial base going forward that anticipates growth along
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with quality of education.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Mr. Rennie.
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
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Mr. Moses, of the 460,000 square feet of commercial that
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are allowed, currently 250,000 can be office, which
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wouldn’t compete with the downtown. Would you think that
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maybe we should increase the amount of office that is
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allowed out there then instead?
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ROY MOSES: Increase the amount of office?
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Yeah. Right now there’s
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250,000 square feet of office allowed. If you’re afraid of
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downtown, we could add more office space instead.
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ROY MOSES: Not at all. It just increases traffic
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in the area. You’re bringing more people in with respect to
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commercial buildings, medical buildings, whatever, and you
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have them there already.
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I was a retailor at one time and I know what it
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takes. When I first opened my clothing store I was going to
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come to Los Gatos, California, and I decided against it. I
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lived here and I could drive ten minutes to work. I went
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into the heart of Silicon Valley, because in order to
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survive and make a profit—small businesses work on very
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small profits—unless you do volume, you couldn’t survive.
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There are not enough people around here to allow
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that much square footage with all these small shops and
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have everybody survive, including the downtown. You’re
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going to decimate the downtown and you’re going to decimate
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that area. They’ll eventually go out of business. How often
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do you see vacant signs go into the businesses around town?
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I cringe every time somebody goes into retail,
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because I was in retail, because they’re putting all their
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savings and money into those retail spots. They cannot make
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it. You have to do volume in order to make a profit to stay
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in business.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Jak Van Nada, Susan
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Buxton, Sandy Decker.
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JAK VAN NADA: Good evening, Council, Madam
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Mayor.
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I am addressing the possible costs to the two Los
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Gatos school districts, should kids from the outer district
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portion in the northern half petition, and succeed, to
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attend Los Gatos schools. Both Superintendent Abbati and
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former school principal and administrator Jim Russell felt
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strongly that petitions would succeed, partially due to the
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distinct neighborhood that the two freeways and the two
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arterials create. I am concerned that the cost to the
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school districts will go unnoticed.
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We don’t know how many kids will attend from
18
either one year or up to the full 13, therefore for the
19
sake of time, lack of data, and simplicity, these numbers
20
reflect a pessimistic scenario, though not a worst case. I
21
am basing this on all children attending for the full 13
22
years in the Los Gatos School District. The cost to the Los
23
Gatos Union School District for one child attending the Los
24
Gatos schools from the out of district schools for 13 years
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1
will be $82,731. The cost for 108 students will run the
2
school district $9,968,682. That cost goes to the Los Gatos
3
Union School District. The average annual cost to the
4
district would be $763,668.
5
This is a thumbnail sketch and not perfect, and
6
again, it is a pessimistic scenario, but it is something to
7
consider. My recommendation, should you decide to put
8
housing in the northern half, would be to make the units
9
much smaller, 1,000 square feet or less, and thus less
10
appealing to families with school-age children who may be
11
better served in the southern half. Thank you.
12
MAYOR SPECTOR: Questions? Seeing none, thank
13
you. Susan Buxton, Sandy Decker, Stanford Stickney.
14
SUSAN BUXTON: Good evening, my name is Susan
15
16
Buxton and I have lived in Los Gatos for over 40 years.
17
I would like to speak to the need for a variety
18
of affordably priced housing to be included in the Specific
19
Plan. I feel, as many others, that the 13.5 acres zoned for
20
20 units per acre should be spread throughout the North 40
21
and include a variety of housing types. Included in this
22
housing should be truly affordable housing units.
23
In order to achieve this residential, developers
24
should be required to follow Town Code and our existing
25
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1
Below Market Price Program. The BMP guidelines state their
2
main goal is to increase the housing supply and meet the
3
housing needs identified by the Town’s General Plan Housing
4
Element. It provides a blueprint for developers as to the
5
number of units required, their size, location, look, and
6
facilities provided, such as parking. It also states that
7
the general intent is to provide affordable housing for
8
those with Low or Median household incomes who work and
9
live in Los Gatos.
10
The General Plan also states that a minimum of
11
20% of the units on the North 40 shall be affordable to
12
households at the Moderate-income level, or below. At this
13
time, when many affordable houses in Los Gatos are being
14
replaced with houses worth multi-millions of dollars, how
15
16
can we justify not requiring individual below market
17
affordable units to be included throughout the North 40?
18
This program would allow for housing costs to meet the
19
needs of many income levels, as stated in the 2015-2023
20
Housing Element.
21
I recommend that the Specific Plan be revised to
22
clearly restate how affordably priced housing should be
23
addressed, and therefore perhaps Section 2.7.3, Item C on
24
page 2-26 could be amended to read, “Affordable housing
25
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1
shall be met pursuant to the Town Code and the Below Market
2
Price Program guidelines. These shall be used to help meet
3
the housing needs for Very Low-, Low-, and Moderate-income
4
housing as identified in the Town’s 2015-2023 Housing
5
Element of the General Plan.
6
Thank you for having this meeting tonight and for
7
your consideration of our opinions.
8
MAYOR SPECTOR: Questions? Seeing none, thank
9
you. Sandy Decker, Stanford Stickney, Markene Smith.
10
SANDY DECKER: Good evening, Council. Sandy
11
Decker, 45 Glen Ridge.
12
As the smoke billowed closer to the rim of our
13
treasured hillside I was reminded, as you were, of the
14
precariousness of our invaluable viewscape. Today, the
15
16
North 40 has the advantage of a 360° view of the valley
17
hillsides, the golden hills to the east and the lush green
18
to the west.
19
To further protect the views from this site we
20
would like to see more of the housing reduced in height to
21
25’ and spread across the North 40. No more viewing
22
platforms. Not only will this protect the views, but it
23
will reduce the density and intensity and create more open
24
space. This will create that seamless transition called out
25
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1
in the Specific Plan from the current fabric of Los Gatos
2
to this new residential and commercial neighborhood.
3
One of the unquestionable purviews of the public
4
for this project is Architectural Site Design Review.
5
However, with the Grosvenor proposal, which was recently
6
denied, we found ourselves with a finished formulaic design
7
foisted upon us with minimal opportunity to speak on the
8
appropriateness of the design for Los Gatos. We would like
9
to make sure that this public review is assured for the
10
future.
11
To reiterate, please protect our hillside views,
12
Specific Plan page 1-1; reduce the height of more of the
13
housing to 25’ and spread it across the entire 40 acres of
14
the site, Specific Plan, Table 2-1; with the height
15
16
reduction we can also reduce the feeling of density and
17
intensity, Specific Plan 2.5.1. In addition, make the
18
Architectural and Site truly the purview of the Los Gatos
19
community through the Planning Commission’s public hearing
20
process.
21
I want to thank you again for giving the
22
community this opportunity to be heard in the development
23
of this huge project, which of course will impact all of us
24
forever. Thank you very much.
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1
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Seeing no questions.
2
Stanford Stickney, Markene Smith, Lainey Richardson.
3
STANFORD STICKNEY: Hi, my name is Stanford
4
Stickney; I’ve had the privilege of living in Los Gatos my
5
entire life. I think having the development is wonderful,
6
but I guess the question on the table is at what juncture
7
does development hurt or inhibit the quality of life of our
8
constituents?
9
Just in the summertime going to Safeway from my
10
home can take 45 minutes, and sometimes if I want to go to
11
Los Gatos Boulevard during rush hour, that can take 45
12
minutes. Assuming that the qualitative estimates for the
13
traffic study are accurate and it would be anywhere between
14
400 and 1,000 more vehicles, I think it would only hurt
15
16
everyone within the Town, not only on Los Gatos Boulevard
17
but Main Street and Santa Cruz Avenue. At what point do we
18
question the quality of life if we have continued
19
development?
20
It was my understanding that one of the benefits
21
of moving the police station to Los Gatos Boulevard was
22
there was more ready access for emergencies for our peace
23
officers. Wouldn’t we be in essence kind of creating that
24
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1
same traffic jam that’s already present by adding such an
2
extensive amount of vehicles?
3
The next question would ask what happens when
4
it’s so unbearable for Town constituents to go to Safeway,
5
for example, that we want to go to Saratoga? Is it
6
conceivable that then the downtown would start to suffer,
7
let alone everyone in the community just sitting in
8
traffic?
9
My proposal would be to make that into a wildlife
10
conservatorship in which we are taking one of the last
11
parcels of land within the Bay Area, which is what
12
originally the Bay Area was founded on, and we could
13
preserve that for future generations, for our children and
14
our grandchildren. My fear and worry is if we do the
15
16
development, whether it’s a hotel or affordable housing
17
units or commercial space, we’re going to be increasing
18
exponentially the vehicle traffic within our community.
19
And that is only our initial estimate. What
20
happens five, ten, fifteen years down the line? Development
21
will only continue. Where is the balance between pro-
22
development and ensuring that our citizens have a quality
23
of life that is amicable to our mothers, our daughters, our
24
children being able to navigate?
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1
Those are my thoughts on the matter. Thank you
2
for your time and consideration.
3
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Markene Smith, Lainey
4
Richardson, Ed Rathmann.
5
MARKENE SMITH: Hi, I’m Markene Smith; I live on
6
Drake’s Bay Avenue. In your packet I had given four
7
suggestions for changing the zoning of the Specific Plan.
8
The first one is to create a scenic corridor
9
overlay zone, and this would be to enhance the scenic
10
quality of Los Gatos Gateway and provide air filtration,
11
buffer noise levels, and preserve wildlife habitat. My
12
proposal is that developers should plant a 300’ large—that
13
means tall—tree corridor along the North 40 property line
14
next to Highway 17 and the Lark Avenue over-ramp, and it
15
16
would be all along 17. No buildings would be constructed
17
there, and we’d use native trees.
18
This is the look and feel of Los Gatos downtown,
19
and you see here is Highway 17. What I did is I took Google
20
Earth, and this is a fun thing to do if you have free spare
21
time or whatever, but here’s Google Earth looking down on
22
Los Gatos. Then if you just drive along 17 on Google Earth,
23
here’s Creekside Village. This is Highway 9, Creekside
24
Village here, and you see all the trees. There are just
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1
trees all over the place in Los Gatos. Many speakers at
2
previous meetings on this subject talked about the trees,
3
and they are tonight too. Here’s where we’re getting up
4
towards the field for Fisher Middle School. This is Blossom
5
Hill Road going across. Trees on both sides of Highway 17,
6
tons of trees. It looks like about 300’ of trees, both
7
sides, not just the side that is Vasona Park.
8
Then we come to the North 40. It’s barren and
9
looks like someone has cut down all the trees and made
10
farmland, obviously. So that’s one point.
11
I think we need trees. Here’s 85, and this is
12
what a previous speaker was saying, that the cars aren’t
13
idling at this point, so for a hotel to go there, or an
14
office building with hermetically sealed windows, fine.
15
16
Over here, this is where the EIR said was the highest
17
cancer risk.
18
I was just going to say no black lung loss is the
19
deal. In other words no buildings and no residences right
20
along the corridor, and I wanted to know just the existing
21
uses of the property. Notice that all of the Yuki property
22
on both sides of the freeway, the residences, are far from
23
the freeway.
24
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1
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Questions? Thank you,
2
ma’am, seeing no questions. Lainey Richardson, Ed Rathmann,
3
Angelia Dormer.
4
LAINEY RICHARDSON: Lainey Richardson. Thank you
5
so much for allowing us to give our opinions tonight. Mine
6
is short and sweet.
7
I would like to see more of a green building
8
situation where we could use gray water systems potentially
9
to water the open space and the green lawns, if there are
10
any.
11
The other thing that I’d like to see is to really
12
try to plan ahead for traffic on Los Gatos Boulevard, which
13
could mean taking potentially 50’ or more of the land and
14
not develop it, but leave it available for possibly a bus
15
16
lane down the line, or maybe even another an on-ramp onto
17
17, which may have to go behind the gas station, but if
18
that property hasn’t been developed, you could potentially
19
do that so the people living in the area wouldn’t even have
20
to go out onto Los Gatos Boulevard if they needed to get on
21
Highway 17. That’s it.
22
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Ed Rathmann, Angelia
23
Doerner, Tom Spilsbury.
24
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1
ED RATHMANN: Mayor, Council Members, my name is
2
Ed Rathmann.
3
I’m in favor of amending the Specific Plan. I’m
4
concerned about the massive size of the retail allowed at
5
the North 40 under the current plan. The 400,000-plus
6
square feet is almost the size of Santana Row. At its
7
current size, and the fact that there are very few
8
restrictions on it, I believe it would seriously hurt our
9
downtown economy and any other retail in Los Gatos on Los
10
Gatos Boulevard. Its current potential size of over 400,000
11
square feet is way too big and needs to be reduced
12
substantially.
13
In addition, there needs to be restrictions on
14
the amount of small retail and the number of restaurants.
15
16
Many new developments now, like the new Main Street center
17
in Cupertino are full of restaurants with very little
18
retail. That would certainly harm the downtown’s vitality.
19
Also, the Market Hall concept should not be
20
allowed in the North 40. It is a great and popular concept,
21
but it belongs downtown. It would be full of small retail
22
and restaurants and would be a regional draw.
23
Those of you that were on the Advisory Committee,
24
I’m sure you remember that the retail at the North 40 was
25
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1
supposed to serve the neighborhood and not draw people from
2
all over the valley. A Market Hall would be a regional
3
draw.
4
Finally, CUPs should be required at the North 40
5
in the same way they are required downtown. Why would the
6
Town want to give up that kind of control? It is unfair to
7
the downtown to require them there but not at the North 40.
8
Let’s get away from the idea that every
9
development needs to have small retail and restaurants in
10
it. The North 40 is appropriate for other uses like mid-
11
size stores, a hotel, and even some upscale offices. The
12
retail of the North 40 can be a nice addition to Los Gatos
13
without destroying our downtown. Thank you.
14
MAYOR SPECTOR: Questions? Ms. Jensen.
15
16
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: At least one, maybe two.
17
Thank you, Mr. Rathmann. A Market Hall would clearly have
18
to be developed by a private developer. I’m curious where
19
you think that would fit downtown with parking issues,
20
traffic issues, and noise issues.
21
ED RATHMANN: You know, you can combine certain
22
spaces downtown that one property owner owns. I can think
23
of certain businesses down the road that might not be there
24
that it would be appropriate. I don’t want to speculate or
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1
name businesses, but there are certain I can think of. It
2
could be not just downtown but across Santa Cruz, Highway
3
9, that area that’s got some… Like where the bocce ball
4
place is; there are a lot of big spaces there. Anywhere but
5
the North 40. Somewhere closer to the downtown.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Give the Town’s current
7
very strong discouragement, if not prohibition, of
8
converting retail to restaurant, combining properties… If
9
you had a, for example, a Market Hall that had food service
10
in it, you’d be converting retail to restaurant. How would
11
you think that that would be possible given the current
12
regulation on downtown?
13
ED RATHMANN: Well, I’m not sure, but that’s why
14
we have CUPs, so these things can be discussed and its
15
16
relative merits for the downtown debated. I’m not sure.
17
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you.
18
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
19
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
20
Mr. Rathmann, about the Market Hall. The developer was
21
saying their vision, initially anyway, and I say things
22
could change, was something more of produce and fish and
23
meat and things that aren’t sold downtown, and of course
24
you’ve made the comment that later on it could change to
25
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1
shoe stores and handbag stores and things like that. Why
2
not allow Market Hall, but restrict it to food only
3
products, for example? Then it’s really competing with
4
Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods rather than anything downtown?
5
ED RATHMANN: Well, I don’t want to argue against
6
Whole Foods or Lunardi’s, but I’m positive that’s not what
7
they’re talking about. As I’ve said in my emails to you
8
before, if you’ve been to the Ferry Building in the City,
9
or Oxbow Market or The Shed in Napa, they’re full of
10
restaurants and they’re full of small retail, and I’m
11
positive that’s what they’re thinking about. They’re not
12
going to be able to charge rents or make any money having a
13
produce stand in the place; it doesn’t make any sense.
14
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you.
15
16
MAYOR SPECTOR: I see no other questions. Thank
17
you. Angelia Doerner, Tom Spilsbury, Edward Morimoto.
18
ANGELIA DOERNER: Hello, I’m Angelia Doerner,
19
proud resident of the Almond Grove. I have a few comments
20
and ideas, not specifically about which amendments to do in
21
the Specific Plan, although I do believe that it does need
22
to be amended, but these are ideas that are somewhat
23
tangential and complementary to that process.
24
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1
During your public hearing and your deliberations
2
on the North 40, the Planning Commission was doing the same
3
on 401/409 Alberto Way. They did a fabulous job. Their
4
overall deliberations were thorough, comprehensive,
5
challenging, insightful, and caring. I found myself
6
vacillating between pride and thankfulness on the Alberto
7
Way process, and frustration and anxiety on the North 40
8
process.
9
Forget frustration, I was mad. My anger was
10
targeted at the Streamlining Act and the fact that it
11
applies to all development projects regardless of size or
12
complexity. The same timeline for vetting, and the decision
13
process, applied to Alberto Way as it did for the North 40,
14
and the North 40 included all of the ambiguities and
15
16
complexity of density bonus laws and balancing affordable
17
and other housing needs versus a developer’s ambitions,
18
along with the more routine planning and development
19
considerations. I was reminded about a tag line someone
20
overused about 20 years ago in the advertising world:
21
“Think outside the box. Color outside the lines,” and don’t
22
forget Taco Bell with “Think outside the bun.”
23
That’s what we need to do. The Streamlining Act
24
time clock starts ticking once an application is deemed
25
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1
complete, so I ask you to consider how can we revamp our
2
application review process to get more done before it is
3
deemed complete? I know there are some dos and don’ts
4
defined by law, but we need to sit down and define the can
5
dos, and not always focus on the can’t dos. These might
6
include an updated list of documents and specificity;
7
updated instructions to consultants like the architect,
8
especially to be customized by size of project and type of
9
project; demand more detail and in-depth documentation with
10
narratives to go along with all of the Picturegrams that
11
are provided, including areas like grading, circulation,
12
and maintenance costs, things that are going to be
13
affecting the costs of these houses, HOA costs, as well as
14
what may end up being costs to the Town.
15
16
I know a lot of demands are on our Staff and time
17
is tight, but time is tighter for us to find a way to
18
change the way we have done things in the past, to adapt to
19
these timeframes and complexities before the next project
20
is submitted.
21
I actually suggest possibly working
22
collaboratively with the Staff, one Town Council member,
23
one Planning Commission member, and three dedicated
24
citizens who can walk through the planning application
25
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1
review process and decide collectively what kinds of things
2
could be done, and who would be willing to do the research
3
and the work to get it done, before the next application
4
comes into place. Please, think outside the story poles.
5
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Questions? None. Tom
6
Spilsbury, Edward Morimoto, Lee Quintana.
7
TOM SPILSBURY: Good evening, Madam Mayor,
8
Council, and Staff. You always get left out, so good
9
evening, Staff.
10
I live at 120 College. I’ve been in town since
11
1962. When I moved here in 1962 I moved onto Carlton
12
Avenue, right next to Ace Hardware, which was the Fry’s
13
Market, and my paper route when I was ten was actually all
14
the Yuki property on both sides of freeway, Oka, so I’ve
15
16
been around this area a little bit.
17
I think Mr. Moses upstaged me, because I thought
18
I had the great line of the North 20, but he beat me to it.
19
When the Yukis pulled the second half of the property off
20
the market, out of the equation, that changed the Specific
21
Plan, in my mind. So it’s really the North 20 now, it’s not
22
the North 40, and that has changed the whole ball game and
23
the whole rule, the whole specs, everything really, in my
24
opinion. The project changed dramatically.
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1
We’re not sure what the Yukis will ever do. The
2
Yukis probably need to be involved in any kind of
3
conversation going forward, whether they want to or not,
4
because they’re really so integral to a phasing of a
5
project.
6
The property on Lark and Los Gatos Boulevard is
7
screaming to be retail. It’s really screaming not houses,
8
retail. You’ve got the traffic issues with housing and the
9
cancer. Retail. That’s what the East Los Gatos residents
10
need out there; retail services, and probably 120,000 to
11
150,000 square feet would be plenty, but that ten acres
12
should look something like where Trader Joe’s is now, a
13
couple of larger buildings with two-story back and forth
14
that offers services that East Los Gatos is screaming for.
15
16
We always have been out there on that end. I’m not out
17
there now, because I live in downtown. We scream for other
18
things downtown.
19
With that being said, when you start with a
20
development you always start with the roads, and the roads
21
have to be put in throughout that project, and East Los
22
Gatos Boulevard has to be developed, or that traffic is
23
going to always be a nightmare. That’s an issue, it’s a
24
problem, but it needs to be addressed. Development 101 is
25
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1
roads first. If you go out to any development when they’re
2
building, that’s what they do, they build the roads first.
3
I’m going to run out of time. Rentals. We need
4
rentals. Marcia, you talked about your son not being able
5
to live here. There are no apartments. We haven’t built
6
apartments in this town for 30 years. We need apartments.
7
Those are smaller units, affordable units. My mom moved
8
here, because she could afford an apartment, not a house.
9
Thank you.
10
MAYOR SPECTOR: I have a question, and it looks
11
like we have another one over there. When you were talking
12
about I think you said 120,000 to 150,000 square feet, that
13
was what?
14
TOM SPILSBURY: Retail.
15
16
MAYOR SPECTOR: Retail for? How did you choose
17
that square footage?
18
TOM SPILSBURY: On ten acres about 25-30% is all
19
you’re going to do, so you can park it, right? I mean you
20
have to be able to park the retail or nobody comes to the
21
retail. That’s where that all falls out. Ten acres is
22
435,600-and-some square feet, and about a quarter to a
23
third of that is the 120,000 to 150,000.
24
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LOS GATOS TOWN COUNCIL 9/27/2016
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39
1
MAYOR SPECTOR: Did you have in your mind what
2
this retail would serve? Is there a certain area of town,
3
or the North 40 or whatever, that it would serve?
4
TOM SPILSBURY: I think it serves East Los Gatos,
5
everybody from National, down Carlton. Nob Hill is kind of
6
underserved; it’s not a great market. Trader Joe’s is
7
looking for larger space. Whole Foods is looking for larger
8
space. Who knows what that means? Will they move or won’t
9
they? I don't know, but those are definitely possibilities.
10
Sprouts is in the marketplace now. There are other food
11
vendors, markets that would help service that neighborhood
12
where people don’t have to drive all over to get everything
13
they need.
14
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Mr. Leonardis.
15
16
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
17
Spector. Mr. Spilsbury, you mentioned the shopping center
18
where Trader Joe’s is now. Do you know the total amount of
19
square footage of a center that size, or say, the Lunardi’s
20
shopping center, just to give us an idea?
21
TOM SPILSBURY: You know, I don’t. I should. It’s
22
my bad, but I should. I can get that information and mail
23
it to you guys; that would be fine. I would say the Trader
24
Joe’s is probably about 50,000 square feet with the two-
25
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1
story layout they have there, maybe a little more, but
2
probably not much more than 60,000. I’m not sure about the
3
other center.
4
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Leonardis.
5
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor. You
6
mentioned making Los Gatos Boulevard wider. Are you
7
referring to the northbound, north and southbound? Are you
8
referring to the area between Lark and Samaritan Drive
9
primarily?
10
TOM SPILSBURY: Between Lark and Samaritan there
11
are eight properties that stick out 60’ into the right-of-
12
way that really some of them have already been widened and
13
some of them not; it looks like a domino effect, and
14
without that widening it’s really to constrict any kind of…
15
16
If you put 400 houses there that aren’t spread
17
out, that’s 1,000 cars, and that is just going to
18
immediately constrict when it goes to two lanes when it
19
should be three, because we don’t have those lanes, because
20
we can’t get a lane through where the people still own the
21
property that really probably should be condemned for
22
public use. That’s another problem.
23
None of this stuff is simple; it’s all very
24
complicated. You guys have got a tough job, because it is
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1
complicated, but it probably has to be done one way or the
2
other.
3
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Mr. Rennie.
4
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor. Mr.
5
Spilsbury, I want to make sure I understand your vision.
6
You talked about ten acres of retail. You’re talking about
7
just at Lark, or are you talking about a strip that wraps
8
around and goes up Los Gatos Boulevard?
9
TOM SPILSBURY: Well, it would have to back up.
10
The ten acres at Lark to Los Gatos Boulevard would be ideal
11
for that. You don’t want to put the retail having everybody
12
drive all the way down to the middle of the block. Nobody
13
puts retail in the middle of a center. You have it on the
14
outside so that kind of traffic can get in and out, and out
15
16
of the neighborhood quickly, in my opinion.
17
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: In the past, I think
18
you’ve told us you were considering Los Gatos Boulevard all
19
the way up, but this ten acres does not include going all
20
the way up to where (inaudible) is?
21
TOM SPILSBURY: No, I would think up on Los Gatos
22
Boulevard, and I know this has been a contested theory, but
23
we’re an aging population. We really need medical up and
24
down, and we’re sitting next to one of the best hospitals
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1
in Northern California for cancer, heart, brain surgery,
2
and doctors are falling out of the way to try to get here
3
to work with this aging population we have, and there is no
4
place for them. That’s where you put them, next to a
5
hospital, usually.
6
That was my opinion. I know we’ve talked about
7
traffic issues because of that, but I would think that
8
would make a lot of sense to me.
9
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thank you.
10
MAYOR SPECTOR: I see no other questions. Thank
11
you.
12
TOM SPILSBURY: Thank you for your time.
13
MAYOR SPECTOR: Edward Morimoto, Lee Quintana,
14
Susan Kankel.
15
16
EDWARD MORIMOTO: Good evening. My name is Ed
17
Morimoto; I live at 460 Monterey Avenue, and I’ll
18
apologize. I actually originally hadn’t planned on
19
speaking, so I may tend to ramble or not be as articulate
20
as I’d like to be, but I figured since my family, the
21
Yukis, constitute 32 of the 44 acres on the North 40 and
22
this hearing was about essentially starting proceedings to
23
change the zoning on our home, it would be irresponsible
24
for me not to get up and at least say something.
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1
It struck me that the first time that I ever got
2
up at this lectern was probably at a Specific Plan Advisory
3
Committee meeting four-and-a-half years ago, and I think I
4
got up to the mike to express my concerns at how long that
5
process had taken. We were in maybe the third year, and at
6
that point I did not realize there were probably another
7
three years to go.
8
While I stand behind what I said that evening, at
9
the time I think I didn’t understand how complicated this
10
North 40 Specific Plan was going to be, the trade-offs that
11
were going to have to be made, the compromises, balancing
12
owner’s property rights versus the needs of the Town,
13
balancing school issues, taxation issues, economic
14
viability of the downtown, economic viability of the
15
16
development. It’s an immensely complicated topic, and I
17
think the amount of work and effort and study that went
18
into the Specific Plan is a testament to that complexity.
19
Now, I can’t believe I’m saying this, because I
20
am probably the last person that would like to see this
21
kind of reopened and to cast my family further into limbo,
22
but if it is going to be reopened I implore you to use at
23
least that level of care and study that you did to come up
24
with the Specific Plan before you change it.
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1
To add more restrictions, reduce its development
2
capacity, to start putting size restrictions on housing
3
units, that all may be the right thing to do, but to do so
4
without adequate objective study would be, in my mind,
5
irresponsible. To reduce its economic value without
6
objective study showing that necessity would, in my mind,
7
be tantamount to a take.
8
So I ask you, if you must reopen the Specific
9
Plan, please do so with an appropriate level of study and
10
deliberation, and not do it purely just on one hearing with
11
a number of citizens such as myself just expressing
12
opinions. Thank you very much.
13
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. I don’t see any
14
questions. Lee Quintana, Susan Kankel, Patti Elliot.
15
16
LEE QUINTANA: Lee Quintana, 5 Palm Avenue.
17
Again, I did not plan to speak, so I may ramble as well,
18
and it may be disjointed, as Dr. Weissman said of his
19
presentation.
20
I’d just like to start with eight years going
21
into the development of the Specific Plan itself. I believe
22
that generally the basic concepts behind the Specific Plan
23
are still valid, that of having lower intensity uses at the
24
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1
southern end and gradually increasing the intensity to the
2
northern end.
3
I think one of the problems is that the Specific
4
Plan did not adequately address the difference between
5
intensity and density and the different factors that play
6
into intensity in residential development versus commercial
7
development.
8
Also, the Specific Plan clearly planned for lower
9
intensity in the Lark Avenue area, because they required
10
larger setbacks along Lark Avenue and along Los Gatos
11
Boulevard in the area of the Lark District, as well as
12
height limitations in that area.
13
Okay, now I’m going to ramble. I’m going to
14
support David Weissman’s comment about coast live oaks. I
15
16
talked with John Bourgeois, a prior planning commissioner
17
who is also a biologist, about tree choices for the area,
18
and he confirmed that there are very few native trees that
19
would do well in a valley setting like the North 40. His
20
recommendation was coastal live oak trees along the
21
freeway. That also gives a less formal appearance than a
22
hedge type plan.
23
I have several recommendations if you’re going to
24
consider reopening this.
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1
One is that you increase the requirement for
2
public open space, and that public access easements be
3
required for all open space either required or proposed by
4
a developer. I’d like to add that I do not believe that the
5
calculation for open space includes streets. That is
6
outside the 40% or the 20% or 30%, whatever.
7
If you are going to increase units, I would
8
suggest that they be in the Northern District, be limited
9
in number, and specifically be located in the general area
10
of the edge zone between the Transition and other district.
11
I would suggest that you remove hotel use as a
12
use of the Transition District, and of course I can’t get
13
to my others.
14
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Maybe we have
15
16
questions. We do. Ms. Jensen.
17
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I am a tree hugger and
18
love coastal live oak and I love our hillsides, however,
19
one of the main tenets of the Specific Plan was to make
20
sure that we reflected the agricultural heritage of that
21
property, which is not hillside or coast live oak, so how
22
do you reconcile your recommendation of coastal live oak to
23
the agricultural heritage of the property?
24
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1
LEE QUINTANA: I would not necessarily say that
2
that specifically reflects the agricultural heritage of the
3
property, but there are existing coastal live oak on the
4
property, so it’s not a tree that is foreign to that area.
5
And again, expanding on that point of the
6
agricultural heritage, one of my suggestions is that we
7
consider having a little bit more detail in the direction
8
of how we implement that requirement to reflect the
9
agricultural heritage as well as how we implement the
10
historical structure preservation heritage and give some
11
direction as to where that should occur generally, and
12
generally how it should be integrated into the entire unit.
13
One of my comments was going to be that if you do
14
include increased residential in the Northern District that
15
16
you might consider allowing standalone row houses, small
17
unit row houses or townhouses, and cottage clusters, but
18
that you establish a general location where they would go
19
that would be consistent with the agricultural and open
20
space preservation. The second thought was that they also
21
take into consideration the impacts of surrounding non-
22
commercial development on those residential units if they
23
are included, and to keep the opportunity for residences
24
above retail.
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1
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you, you answered
2
my question.
3
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right, Mr. Rennie.
4
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
5
Ms. Quintana, you’ve been around planning and the Town for
6
a while. I’d like to tap your institutional knowledge.
7
My recollection is the North 40 wasn’t part of
8
Los Gatos before Highway 85 was built. I think they annexed
9
it into the Town when 85 was going to go through. Can you
10
remind me why we did that, and what was our vision back
11
then to begin with?
12
LEE QUINTANA: I don't know the whole history. I
13
have gone back and looked at some of it. My understanding
14
is that prior to the planning for the 85 freeway the area
15
16
of the North 40 was in the county, and the Town proposed a
17
study to see how commercial uses could be intensified in
18
that area to take advantage of the 85 freeway. I think that
19
was the beginning of the planning for the North 40.
20
Subsequently it was expanded to also include looking at
21
where there were possibilities for intensification of
22
residential uses.
23
When those studies and the amendments to the
24
General Plan revising the Highway 85 element—which was then
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1
called Highway 85 Vasona, because the Vasona rail was then
2
being considered in the planning—were completed, that was
3
done in the last 1990s, just a short while prior to the
4
initiation of studying a specific plan for the North 40,
5
the original draft.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you. I think it’s
7
useful to understand original intentions in history.
8
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Vice Mayor.
9
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Thank you. Ms. Quintana, I
10
know that you’re well aware of environmental analysis,
11
given your background, so is it your opinion that the
12
changes that you’ve proposed will require no additional
13
environmental analysis?
14
LEE QUINTANA: I believe if the increased
15
16
residential in the Northern District is compensated by
17
reduced commercial in the Northern District, there would be
18
no need, because basically that would probably lower the
19
traffic impact.
20
But I also think that we should look at a
21
realistic number for lowering the commercial or even the
22
residential square footage based on all of the standards
23
that are required. I don’t think the existing numbers are
24
actually realistic; they’re too high.
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1
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Leonardis.
2
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
3
Spector. Ms. Quintana, Mr. Spilsbury spoke earlier about
4
putting the commercial on the southern part. He seemed to
5
think that the access was better and that the location was
6
better for the commercial. How do you feel about that?
7
LEE QUINTANA: You’re talking about the southern
8
part being the Lark District?
9
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Yes.
10
LEE QUINTANA: The frontage along Los Gatos
11
Boulevard is already almost 75-80% or more occupied by
12
commercial uses or office structures, so there is not
13
really much opportunity for that in that area. Further down
14
in the Transition District and the Northern District, yes,
15
16
there is opportunity for that, and at least as far as Phase
17
1 went, did take advantage of commercial along Los Gatos
18
Boulevard.
19
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Leonardis.
20
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor. One
21
more question. We have had some speakers speak about the,
22
for lack of a better word, unhealthiness of having the
23
housing in that Southern or Lark District, especially up
24
against the freeway. How do you feel about that?
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1
LEE QUINTANA: To be honest, I’m not sure how I
2
feel about that. I do think that there are mitigations that
3
were included that reduced that down to what is considered
4
insignificant levels, and that with current laws coming
5
into play and probably in the future, the air quality
6
impacts will hopefully go down even further. But the
7
reality is that we have built housing along the freeway in
8
numerous locations within Los Gatos and have not been
9
concerned about that.
10
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Thank you. Susan
11
Kankel, Patti Elliot, Sam Weidman.
12
SUSAN KANKEL: Good evening, Susan Kankel,
13
Reservoir Road. Thank you for considering alterations to
14
the Specific Plan.
15
16
One change I think is easy: mandatory underground
17
parking for commercial and residential.
18
Now commercial, that’s easy. You’re doing it now.
19
Safeway did it. Old Town did it where Steamer’s is. The
20
Alberto project has it. So that’s easy.
21
But underground parking for residential,
22
especially those—I think of them as blocks—townhouses, or
23
apartments, or whatever those large buildings were that we
24
saw in the previous proposal; underground parking there
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1
would benefit everybody. I looked it up and a small, a
2
minimum for a one-car garage, is 12x20. That’s getting a
3
car in, not a big SUV.
4
As we said on the Specific Plan, you have 270
5
residences, so if you took all 270 residences and you took
6
a one-car garage off of their building you have taken
7
64,000 square feet out of the buildings and you’ve put it
8
underground. If we take that apart and say okay we’re going
9
to have garden clusters, the disabled, seniors, so we need
10
to have some garage above, let’s say we take 200 of those
11
residences and take their garages and put them underground,
12
you’re saving 48,000 square feet. So you can lower the mass
13
of the building that is above ground, it’s only residences,
14
and you could lower the height of those.
15
16
Then, for a second thing, because you don’t have
17
garages attached to all these residences you do not need
18
the hardscape of driveways or alleyways, and so that
19
hardscape all of a sudden can become green areas, because
20
we don’t need hardscape for those cars.
21
A third thing, to build all of these garages you
22
have to dig, so that soil, perhaps instead of being
23
offloaded could be moved over to those portions of the
24
North 40 that will have to have infill, as we heard in the
25
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1
previous application, so perhaps that soil could just be
2
moved around the project and you would eliminate all that
3
traffic headache with one and off the trucks.
4
So, underground parking. Thank you.
5
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. I see no questions.
6
Patti Elliot, Sam Weidman, Tom Picraux.
7
PATTI ELLIOT: Good evening, I’m Patty Elliot. I
8
first want to thank Mayor Spector for her strong leadership
9
on this issue of such tremendous importance to our town. I
10
hope that all Council members can now hit the reset button
11
and see the need to amend the Specific Plan to ensure that
12
it contains the necessary particulars, such that the next
13
application for the North 40 actually implements that
14
Vision Statement rather than pay lip service to or ignore
15
16
it.
17
Please make clear that the housing is to be
18
spread throughout the 40 acres with less housing in the
19
Lark District, as most people believe the Specific Plan
20
calls for. Make that explicit with language such as “shall”
21
rather than “should.” Require by using the shall language
22
that more and smaller units are located in the areas served
23
by the Campbell School District to ensure that those units
24
are more affordable for seniors and millennials, as is also
25
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1
called for in the Specific Plan. Reduce the amount of
2
commercial space permitted and require that space to be
3
truly neighborhood serving.
4
With these elements clarified you will create
5
truly open space. In addition to the orchards, allow for a
6
playground, a picnic area, and why not a large community
7
pool where residents of all ages would have a place to
8
recreate and exercise? We can expect to experience more
9
high heat days and continued drought. Pools use less water
10
than comparable sized lawns. Why not seek a public/private
11
partnership for such a community pool in which the
12
Recreation Department, homeowners association, and other
13
area residents can share in the use and the cost of the
14
facility? Given the massive beach traffic issues we already
15
16
have, the hundreds of new residents in the North 40 will
17
not have reasonable access to the beach. Onsite recreation
18
will help minimize weekend and afternoon traffic.
19
I implore all of you to reopen your minds as to
20
how to revise and clarify the Specific Plan to ensure that
21
the Vision Statement is realized and that the North 40
22
becomes a beautiful, cohesive extension of our special
23
town.
24
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Ms. Jensen.
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1
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you, Ms. Elliot. I
2
have a question. You indicated that one thing that you
3
would like to see is the Specific Plan be revised to make
4
businesses along the North 40, I think you said, “truly
5
neighborhood serving.” I’m curious how you would go about
6
defining what that would be? Because I could imagine a
7
restaurant being neighborhood serving, I could imagine a
8
Market Hall being neighborhood serving, I could imagine all
9
kinds of things being neighborhood serving, so what kind of
10
language would you envision that would make something
11
“truly neighborhood serving”?
12
PATTI ELLIOT: Well, the first point I was making
13
was to reduce the size of the commercial allowed, and then
14
within that I agree that a neighborhood restaurant, or two
15
16
perhaps, would be appropriate, a salon or two perhaps, a
17
small green grocer. I agree with some of the earlier
18
speakers who talked about the fact that the Market Hall
19
would be more of a regional draw than neighborhood serving,
20
but perhaps a small green grocer or small convenience store
21
where people could get their necessaries, their everyday
22
food items, things like that. I’m not thinking of other
23
things right now, but the typical things that people would
24
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1
want to do. A coffee shop, for instance. That sort of
2
thing.
3
MAYOR SPECTOR: I see no other questions. Thank
4
you. Sam Weidman, Tom Picraux, Rod Teague.
5
SAM WEIDMAN: Good evening, Mayor Spector and
6
Council Members. My name is Sam Weidman and I live on
7
Carlester Drive.
8
In my 70 years in town I’ve seen many changes,
9
both in residential building and commercial building. We’re
10
now trying to decide what the last large piece of open
11
area, the North 40, should look like. One of the four
12
Guiding Principles and site-specific plans is that the
13
North 40 will look and feel like Los Gatos. The North 40
14
must continue to be seamlessly woven into the fabric of our
15
16
community, complementing other Los Gatos residential
17
business neighborhoods.
18
Most of the residents of Los Gatos reacted in a
19
negative way when the story poles went up. It looked like a
20
giant fortress was going up, as seen from the four major
21
roadways surrounding the North 40. Once residents learned
22
what it was and what was being proposed they were even more
23
aware that they didn’t like the look and feel of what was
24
being proposed; too dense and too intense.
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1
For the North 40 to look and feel like Los Gatos
2
it has to blend seamlessly with the rest of Los Gatos. It
3
must look like the rest of Los Gatos. If you’re traveling
4
north or south on Los Gatos Boulevard, or east or west on
5
Lark Avenue, you shouldn’t have to do a double take and ask
6
yourself what was that I just passed? It should all look
7
and feel like you’re still in the Town of Los Gatos, where
8
so many people have bought their homes because of the look,
9
feel and charm.
10
Can the look and feel be quantified? No. However,
11
the number of residents who expressed a disapproval of the
12
previous application based on the look and feel of what was
13
being proposed greatly outnumbered the number of residents
14
that were in favor of it, and that is objective data.
15
16
Spread the housing out over the entire North 40,
17
reduce the density/intensity, make the housing units more
18
affordable, and retain the look and feel of Los Gatos.
19
Thank you.
20
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. No questions for you.
21
Tom Picraux, Rod Teague, Jason Farwell.
22
TOM PICRAUX: Thank you. Tom Picraux at Panorama
23
Way. Thank you for holding this special meeting, and I’d
24
like to speak to the affordable housing aspect of the plan.
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1
As you know, the previous plan had 49 units, but
2
specifically for the Very Low-income category. I’d like to
3
see attention given to the Low-income category, and perhaps
4
also to that area of housing that’s just above and near the
5
Low-income, something that is, for example, available to
6
seniors interested in move-down housing and for people who
7
need to rent and can’t afford Los Gatos type housing
8
typically at its current cost.
9
I believe a more balanced plan could be developed
10
that would specifically consider the needs of our seniors
11
and the Low-income residents of our town. Thank you.
12
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Rod Teague, Jason
13
Farwell, Lucille Weidman.
14
ROD TEAGUE: Madam Mayor, Council Members, Staff,
15
16
thank you for acting so swiftly on this matter. I hear
17
Kevin Durant is already complaining about the traffic
18
around here, and he’s just in town. I saw that on the news
19
before I came over here.
20
Many of the previous speakers already spoke to
21
some of the suggestions I had. I made some notes.
22
The underlying problem that really brought us
23
here was that the Specific Plan contradicted itself. We
24
really did little to stop those contradictions. For
25
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1
example, when you say look and feel, but you leave that
2
interpretation open to a developer to figure out for you,
3
you could end up with anything. Although the style I felt
4
was introducing a new style of architecture into Los Gatos,
5
I didn’t think it looked anything or felt anything like Los
6
Gatos.
7
My suggestion is maybe finding a prevailing look
8
and feel that’s in the north end of town. If you go up to
9
the north end of town you do have a lot of tile roofs;
10
there is a sort of Mediterranean feel in the north end.
11
One of the other contradictions also is if you
12
call for low intensity in the Specific Plan, and yet you go
13
and zone 20 units per acre and give a by right privilege to
14
the developer, knowing that that 20 units per acre is
15
16
really going to turn into 27 units per acre, how can you
17
ever achieve that low intensity feel that the Specific Plan
18
is calling for?
19
Those are just a couple suggestions. For the sake
20
of the Yuki family and all the landowners, I hope this
21
moves swiftly, and I hope that we really can come up with
22
something that the Town can be proud of and we can all work
23
together to achieve. Thank you.
24
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1
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Jason Farwell, Lucille
2
Weidman, Ken Arendt.
3
JASON FARWELL: Good evening, Madam Mayor and
4
Council Members. I’d just like to echo some of the
5
sentiments of Ed Rathmann, who spoke earlier about the
6
commercial component of the North 40. This is not new news
7
to you folks up here. I think you all know my position on
8
it, but just for the public record, I want to make sure
9
that whatever we do is creating a fair playing field for
10
the downtown Commercial District as well as the North 40. I
11
think the only way to do that, since the Town seems to be
12
unwilling to pull back on its restrictions downtown, is to
13
put in place those same restrictions with the North 40, and
14
that would be done through the CUP process.
15
16
If you don’t do that, you lose control. You put
17
the ball in the hands of the developer and they can bring
18
in any tenant they want. Under the current Specific Plan
19
that is how it is. They can bring in anybody they want, any
20
restaurant they want, and it would devastate downtown.
21
There are no formula restrictions on the North 40.
22
Really, I’m imploring you to insert an even
23
playing field, because again, if you don’t it will lay
24
waste to downtown.
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1
I’m just trying to think if there’s anything else
2
I want to add to that. That’s really my main point,
3
especially as it relates to the food uses downtown as well.
4
I think just the competition with the North 40 will be
5
really, really tough as well as in the retail.
6
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
7
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Mr. Farwell, thank you
8
for coming tonight. You indicated you want to have a level
9
playing field, and I’m wondering why deregulating the
10
downtown wouldn’t create a level playing field?
11
JASON FARWELL: I think that it potentially
12
would, but the Council doesn’t seem to want to do that.
13
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Not yet.
14
JASON FARWELL: Well yeah, but we’re living in
15
16
the present, and believe me, I think all of us have been
17
around long enough to know that that’s a really big hurdle
18
to get over.
19
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: (Inaudible).
20
JASON FARWELL: And I think, rightfully so, there
21
has been an effort to protect downtown and the charm of
22
downtown. I don’t necessarily agree with all of it, but
23
we’ve come to live with it and operate in it, and to have a
24
whole separate part of town, especially in this
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1
concentrated area, that’s going to be newly developed and
2
going to be beautiful and very enticing and lots of
3
parking, I just see the masses heading north.
4
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: One more question?
5
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: You and Mr. Rathmann have
7
both said on a number of occasions that you believe that
8
construction of commercial in the North 40 would…various
9
words were used, but tonight you used “devastate.”
10
We got a report in late August from our Town
11
Manager and Economic Director that sales tax in the first
12
quarter for Los Gatos is down 7.8%, and that the historic
13
sales per capita is at a ten-year low for the first
14
quarter, which is not reflected in other communities that
15
16
are comparable to Los Gatos, so we are unique in our sales
17
tax going down, and that is without construction of the
18
North 40. So to what would you attribute that if the North
19
40 hasn’t yet been built?
20
JASON FARWELL: That’s a good question. I’m
21
assuming that a portion of that would relate to some of the
22
traffic issues we’re dealing with. I think also some of
23
that might have to do with the offerings downtown in our
24
retail and restaurant locations. Frankly, I think that the
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1
vitality of downtown is struggling. I think it needs a
2
makeover. I think it needs to be cleaned up; it needs to be
3
more inviting. We need more parking. I would attribute it
4
to a number of those factors. I may be wrong, I don't know.
5
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Ms. Sayoc.
6
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Mr. Rathmann, given that we
7
have a set amount of Staff to work on all these issues, and
8
given the current trend of sales tax declining, how would
9
you envision prioritizing Staff resources? The same Staff
10
that would be working on revising the Specific Plan would
11
be the same Staff that we would utilize to create policy
12
changes if there is agreement on downtown, so given the
13
issues that the business world is facing, how would you
14
envision prioritizing all these different tasks that need
15
16
to be done?
17
JASON FARWELL: I’m not that smart. You know, I
18
feel for Staff. The load is oppressive, no doubt about it.
19
I would leave that to the Council to provide direction as
20
to what your priorities are. I’ve always felt that the
21
Council’s priority was downtown and has always been
22
protecting downtown, so to the extent that that’s one of
23
your priorities, I would direct Staff accordingly.
24
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1
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Seeing none,
2
thank you.
3
JASON FARWELL: Thank you.
4
MAYOR SPECTOR: Lucille Weidman, Ken Arendt, and
5
Shannon Susick.
6
LUCILLE WEIDMAN: Good evening, Mayor Spector and
7
Town Council members. My name is Lucille Weidman; I live on
8
Carlester Drive.
9
It has been brought to my attention that a three-
10
story hotel for family members of cancer patients receiving
11
treatment at the Stanford Cancer Center is being planned
12
for the four parcels at Burton Road and Los Gatos
13
Boulevard. If plans have been submitted to the Planning
14
Department, this makes defining the design elements of the
15
16
North 40 time sensitive.
17
I would like to suggest forming an ad hoc
18
committee to set design standards now. If such a committee
19
is formed, I respectfully request inviting Town residents
20
to be part of the committee.
21
I thank you for your time, and I thank you for
22
your consideration.
23
24
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1
MAYOR SPECTOR: Before you leave, I didn’t get
2
the very first part of what you were saying about Burton
3
Road. Would you give me that again, please?
4
LUCILLE WEIDMAN: Certainly. It has been brought
5
to my attention that there is a three-story hotel for
6
family members of cancer patients receiving treatment at
7
the Stanford Cancer Center that is being planned for the
8
four parcels at Burton Road and Los Gatos Boulevard.
9
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Questions of Staff, if
10
you’ll wait till after we have public testimony. Thank you.
11
Ken Arendt, Shannon Susick, and that will be my last card
12
unless somebody comes up.
13
KEN ARENDT: Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor,
14
Town Council Members. Thank you for arranging this quick
15
16
meeting to hopefully get some concurrence on amending the
17
Specific Plan, a great document.
18
The good news here I think is that we all love
19
this town and its future going forward, so it would be
20
incredulous to think that we are not all aligned with that
21
major objective.
22
The benefits of such revisions as called by Mayor
23
Spector would reduce and maybe eliminate any ambiguity or
24
loophole that exists in the Specific Plan and make it
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1
clearer for any developer to respond properly. We want to
2
avoid all the contentious issues that arose during this
3
last application process.
4
nd
On September 22 Town Staff had submitted a
5
report that summarized the Mayor’s desire for amendment,
6
“To ensure that future development meets the intended
7
outcomes of a refined Specific Plan,” and furthermore this
8
action is not intended to be a rewrite of the entire
9
document. It was designed to be specific, clear, and
10
require no amendments to the Housing Element. I must say,
11
many of my colleagues and I form a task force, have
12
submitted many high-level comments to you, and you’ve heard
13
from many of the people this evening.
14
But I’ve got to talk about one issue that may be
15
16
a little contradictory to the objective, and I’m referring
17
to the last Staff Council Agenda Report submitted on
18
th
September 26. In my opinion it displays a lack of urgency
19
for the process of which time is of the essence. We have
20
heard numerous times this evening, and we have read it,
21
that anything can be submitted at any time until such time
22
as a revision is actually completed.
23
Their report indicates that the earliest that the
24
Staff can bring something to the General Plan Committee is
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th
1
October 26. Now, that may be true, but do you know how
2
many times that committee has met this year out of the 18
3
scheduled times? None. They’ve canceled every meeting. I
4
know that they can meet more quickly. I know some of the
5
people on them personally.
6
Then the report indicates that nothing can be put
7
th
in front of the Planning Commission till December 7, and
8
th
finally the Town Council January 17. In my opinion, I find
9
that unacceptable, especially regarding the objective that
10
you’ve set forward to do. We need to not have business as
11
usual. We need to go ahead, perhaps use our task force, and
12
perhaps collaborate in some fashion to speed up the
13
process. I realize that priorities are tight, but you guys
14
have the ability to establish those priorities. Thank you
15
16
very much.
17
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Ms. Jensen.
18
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I have a question for
19
you, sir. You spoke about—I forgot exactly what you said—
20
essentially closing loopholes to make the plan more
21
particular. One of the controversies, if you will, that was
22
discussed over the eight years or whatever it was of
23
developing a Specific Plan was specificity and
24
particularity versus allowing for discretion, and I’m
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1
wondering where you come down on that? I’m going to ask the
2
Staff this question and Mr. Schultz as well. Once you write
3
a plan that has no loopholes and is incredibly specific,
4
once a developer comes in and complies with that plan, you
5
are done. So how do you react to that?
6
KEN ARENDT: I don’t think it’s either/or. I
7
don’t believe that you can eliminate subjectivity
8
completely, because then you’re land locked. But I do think
9
that we could get a little tighter on here to avoid some of
10
the ambiguities. We can go into the should to the shalls, I
11
think as someone mentioned earlier this evening, and do
12
think that more reflective the intent of where we want to
13
go with this, and not leave it as it is. So I come down on
14
tightening things up, but certainly not land locking a
15
16
decision going forward.
17
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you.
18
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Thank you.
19
Shannon Susick, Chris Chapman, and Bruce McCombs.
20
SHANNON SUSICK: Good evening, Mayor and Council.
21
I just wanted to bring up one word, and then I’ll be done.
22
Traffic. Okay, I’m done. No, I’m not done.
23
24
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1
I have a couple of ideas, and I’m hoping it would
2
be worthy of your time to put this in the revised Specific
3
Plan.
4
Each application shall require a current
5
comprehensive traffic study using actual counts versus
6
projected or based on tables, and I believe that definition
7
of “current” should also be included, and my idea of
8
current would be within the last 12 months.
9
Each application if not approved within a year,
10
or if affected by significant changes within the
11
development or within a five-mile radius, shall have a
12
revised or updated traffic study not to exceed 12 months in
13
date.
14
I know there were issues with the previous
15
16
application in regard to CEQA and the EIR and because of
17
the Housing Element, but I believe that the traffic was the
18
number one complaint, or at least in the top three in
19
regard to the past application.
20
I would also like that each application shall
21
include pedestrian and bicycle counts, as the Town’s
22
current goals are to reduce vehicular traffic and encourage
23
bicycle and pedestrian transportation in all neighborhoods.
24
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1
We just had a town-wide count. I don't know the results
2
yet.
3
And this would be something to think about or to
4
discuss more with Matt Morley or the traffic engineers, but
5
I don't know that necessarily widening Los Gatos Boulevard
6
is going to help the traffic. I know that there are going
7
to be issues with on-ramps, but I know that when you look,
8
and forget what the principle is in chemistry or biology,
9
but if you have a container and it gets bigger and it’s…
10
Whatever it is, it’s volume or something. But if you widen
11
that road, people are going to come and they’re going to
12
think that they can get there, and then when they get down
13
to Lark it’s going to narrow a little bit, when they get to
14
Blossom Hill it’s going to narrow even more, and they will
15
16
never go downtown if they are thinking about going
17
downtown. So that’s one of the thoughts.
18
The other thing I wanted to say was that you have
19
engaged the Town, and we respect the time and energy that
20
all of you have spent, and that the Yuki family has been
21
willing to sell their property, but a lot of people were
22
unaware unfortunately, for whatever reasons, and I know
23
that as leaders you want us to move forward, so let’s move
24
forward together. I think that the work that you’ve done in
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1
the last few months, and your decision a few weeks ago, was
2
very brave and strong, and you have the respect and the
3
help of everyone in this audience.
4
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Questions? Mr. Rennie.
5
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
6
Ms. Susick, I want to make sure I understand your idea.
7
Don’t widen Los Gatos Boulevard so you don’t let more
8
people into town, is that correct?
9
SHANNON SUSICK: No, I’m just not sure that
10
widening it is going to really, truly mitigate the traffic
11
issue, especially if we’re talking about those parcels that
12
are on the east side towards the hospital. I could be
13
wrong, but maybe there are other ways we could mitigate,
14
and maybe there are other circulation patterns within
15
16
development or outside, but again, I was asking for
17
language in there regarding traffic studies, not
18
necessarily new EIRs with each application, because they’re
19
so expensive and take so long.
20
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: The reason I ask is you
21
immediately gave me this idea of why don’t we have two
22
lanes coming into town, so that discourages people from
23
using Los Gatos Boulevard as a way to get into town versus
24
the highway, but allow three lanes going out so we can let
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1
people get out of town easier and reduce traffic. How does
2
that sound to you?
3
SHANNON SUSICK: Right. There are many things I
4
wish I had studied in school instead of journalism, because
5
it’s not really helping me here. One would be to be a land
6
use attorney, and one would be to be a traffic engineer, my
7
new love.
8
But anyway, I don't know. I mean, maybe Matt
9
Morley… I think that there is a definite principle, at
10
least as far as funneling traffic and moving it around.
11
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you.
12
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
13
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you for coming. I
14
think it’s a fantastic idea to have real time traffic
15
16
counts. The difficulty I have with that concept is you can
17
certainly assess existing conditions.
18
SHANNON SUSICK: Right.
19
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: You can do that over time
20
so that you get a good picture, so if we don’t have the
21
example I gave of high school in June versus high school in
22
October, you can take an existing condition. I’ll use an
23
example, Hillbrook School, where you did host counts for
24
Hillbrook School, but if the thing is not there, how would
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1
you envision a real time traffic count being relative or
2
helpful in figuring out what’s going to happen when
3
something is there?
4
SHANNON SUSICK: I just think to establish a
5
reasonable base, a relevant base, a current base. We have
6
those projects that are still not finished at Albright, and
7
we have the huge Good Samaritan that they keep postponing
8
even presenting their Draft EIR, and again, that’s
9
projected. The Albright, we’re almost there. I guess not
10
quite, but I just think to establish a solid base. I’m just
11
reflecting a lot of comments from the public, which was
12
that if you’re sitting in traffic and it’s taking you three
13
signals to turn left from Lark or Los Gatos Boulevard, and
14
then the traffic studies are saying no, or that the
15
16
mitigation measures are so strong that it’s going to
17
actually reduce the traffic.
18
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I know you’re not a
19
traffic engineer, or play one on TV, but if you establish a
20
base that is occurring without the mitigation measures, how
21
do you determine whether the mitigation measures are going
22
to do anything? I get what you’re saying, but I’m just
23
curious, because this is always the conundrum with traffic,
24
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1
because you’re trying to figure out what’s going to happen
2
with something else and it hasn’t occurred yet.
3
SHANNON SUSICK: Right.
4
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: So how do you do that
5
with a base that isn’t necessarily reflective of what’s
6
going to be the condition if it’s built?
7
SHANNON SUSICK: Can we ask Matt?
8
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: He’ll say look at the ITE
9
manual. I’ll ask him later.
10
SHANNON SUSICK: Okay, thank you.
11
MAYOR SPECTOR: Okay, other questions for the
12
speaker? Thank you. We have Chris Chapman followed by Bruce
13
McCombs, and that’s my last card.
14
CHRIS CHAPMAN: Hello, my name is Chris Chapman
15
16
and I live at 201 Mistletoe Road.
17
I’m just looking for ways to perhaps scale down
18
uses of the North 40, and although the Market Hall concept
19
sounds very attractive, there are plenty of grocers in this
20
town. I think of Cornucopia, which is a small boutique
21
produce food stand on Winchester that has operated there
22
for 40 years. Maybe others want to pay $2 for an apple, but
23
I think there are many opportunities, such as our farmers
24
market in downtown Los Gatos, where people can shop for
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1
produce. So number one, the Market Hall, to make it really
2
as successful as something like the Ferry Building in San
3
Francisco, and do we really want to have a magnet that
4
draws more traffic to our area?
5
I also really support the underground parking
6
concept. I think that allows for more open space. There
7
have been comments about a driveway open space, what is
8
open space, but if you get all that concrete underground, I
9
think it would be very important.
10
I also think it is important to address Los Gatos
11
Boulevard traffic prior to the approval of any development.
12
I’m not really interested in seeing more strip malls on Los
13
Gatos Boulevard deemed commercial. The Office Depot is
14
tucked back, it’s not just another Trader Joe’s upgraded
15
16
strip mall, and so if there are more creative ways to not
17
make the commercial stuff so blatantly obvious and 40’-plus
18
height requirements, I think it would be better. Thank you.
19
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Bruce McCombs.
20
BRUCE McCOMBS: Good evening, Madam Mayor and
21
Members of the Town Council. My name is Bruce McCombs; I
22
live on Kennedy Road in Los Gatos.
23
I’d just like to take a moment to thank everyone
24
here again for the incredible work that you’ve done and
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1
what you’re doing to help continue the quality of life for
2
us here in Los Gatos, especially during the past several
3
months. We’ve worked on the proposed North 40 project and I
4
just really feel encouraged that we’re headed in the right
5
direction, and I hope you feel the same. The past few weeks
6
have been pretty exciting for all of us, to be sure. I just
7
hope that things are getting a bit easier for you as the
8
North 40 project is considered.
9
If I understood, by the way, the announcement
10
correctly, the purpose of tonight’s meeting is to consider
11
the possibility of amending certain parts of the North 40
12
Specific Plan. It seems to many of us this is maybe in fact
13
our one and only opportunity to clarify and correct a few
14
mostly minor areas in the current Specific Plan that
15
16
enabled the previous Applicant to direct much of the
17
process rather than making an attempt to follow the fairly
18
clear cut guidelines and especially the intent provided in
19
the current North 40 plan.
20
Of course I realize how long and hard all of our
21
Council members have worked on the North 40 project to
22
date. I’m just asking you to please stay the course. With
23
just a few revisions the Specific Plan, and ultimately the
24
North 40 development, can be what our Town leaders
25
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1
originally envisioned. I’m asking that each and every
2
member of the Council please vote to support any motion
3
that might be made either this evening or in the future
4
regarding possible amendments to the current Specific Plan.
5
If the Town is going to move forward with plans
6
to amend the Specific Plan, it seems to me that now would
7
be the time to do so. I say this because I firmly believe
8
that you and leaders of our Town would be in a much better
9
position to determine the size and scope of the North 40
10
development where you would have an updated Specific Plan
11
in place before the next application is submitted.
12
Otherwise, we’re right back where we started, trying to
13
find ways to make the current Specific Plan work to enforce
14
the vision that the Specific Plan was intended to provide,
15
16
when just a few fairly minor revisions to the current plan
17
might cause future applicants to think twice before
18
proposing a development that just isn’t a good fit for our
19
town.
20
Having studied the current Specific Plan from
21
cover to cover on several occasions in the past few months,
22
I’ve learned two things.
23
The current Specific Plan is a beautifully
24
crafted document that provides a very clear vision for
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1
responsible development of the North 40. It’s quite clear
2
that whomever was responsible for creating the current
3
Specific Plan has a deep love and respect for our town, as
4
page after page makes abundantly clear.
5
The second thing I’ve learned is that there may
6
indeed be a few loopholes in the current Specific Plan that
7
the previous Applicants may have attempted to use to their
8
benefit.
9
In short, I don’t feel the overriding intent of
10
the Specific Plan is being honored in several areas. Of
11
course that’s my opinion, but given all that has transpired
12
in the past several months I do think that the current
13
Specific Plan is in need of an immediate and fairly minor
14
update.
15
16
I’m grateful for your time, and I cannot thank
17
you enough for the work that you’ve done on behalf of our
18
town. Thank you.
19
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Questions? Seeing
20
none. That is the last card I have, and so I’m going to
21
close the public testimony portion of this hearing and I am
22
going to take a ten-minute break, so we will be back at
23
9:00 o’clock.
24
(INTERMISSION)
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1
MAYOR SPECTOR: If you’ll all take your seats,
2
and if Council Members could return to the dais. All right,
3
continuing on with our hearing.
4
For the benefit of Council, what we will be doing
5
next, and I know that you have questions, because you said
6
it, we’ll begin with questions… I should start with Ms.
7
Prevetti. Do you have anything before we get to questions
8
of Staff? All right, we’ll begin with questions of Staff.
9
Ms. Jensen.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: How does the Mayor want
11
to do this? I have a whole heck of a lot of questions. Do
12
you want me to just go through it, or do you want it to be
13
somehow organized, or just keep going?
14
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let’s see, I actually didn’t
15
16
anticipate a whole lot of questions.
17
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Two pages worth.
18
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right, why don’t you go ahead
19
and start, and then if any Council Member wants to ask a
20
question, even though Ms. Jensen is on a roll, just raise
21
your hand. Ms. Jensen.
22
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I’ll try to start with
23
the big picture questions and then go down to more
24
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specific. Maybe that will make some sense. And I’ll also
2
ask questions that I promised I was going to ask.
3
The first one is a question regarding making the
4
Specific Plan more specific, and this may be for Mr.
5
Paulson or Ms. Prevetti, and my question is how specific do
6
you get before it becomes essentially an application?
7
Because what you’re doing is you’re writing exactly how an
8
application should appear and calling it a plan, and then
9
once it appears that way have you eliminated discretion for
10
the decision maker? How far can you go down that path?
11
JOEL PAULSON: I’ll start, and Ms. Prevetti can
12
also add if she had anything additional.
13
You can go very far down that path. I think the
14
comment that you made relating to specifically by right
15
16
development from the Housing Element side, and the more
17
specific you get, that does limit the discretion you have
18
when an application comes forward. There are specific plans
19
that are very specific, and there are specific plans that
20
are even less specific than the Specific Plan that we have
21
for the North 40.
22
The Council is free to choose what they feel
23
comfortable with, but there are repercussions when an
24
application comes forward and meets all of the shalls. For
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instance, if you change everything to shall and they’ve met
2
all of the technical requirements, we run into some of the
3
similar conversations we had with the previous application
4
as far as what is an objective requirement versus
5
subjective. I believe ultimately it would be extremely
6
difficult to not have still some subjectivity in there, and
7
even with the by right development the Town still does
8
retain its ability to review the architecture from the
9
Architecture and Site perspective. Ms. Prevetti, if you
10
have anything additional.
11
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Follow up on that, I
12
think it was Mr. Teague talking about a suggestion of
13
somehow identifying a prevailing style of architecture. You
14
can always retain the right to look at architecture, but if
15
16
you write in what type of architecture it is, then are you
17
done?
18
JOEL PAULSON: Yes. I think now there is kind of
19
some guidance as far as what we’re looking for
20
architecturally, but if you put in there all of the
21
buildings must be Mediterranean or Spanish style, then I
22
think that’s pretty clear direction and that’s the path
23
that we would be going down.
24
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Related question. One of
2
the speakers was talking about, and we’ve heard in the
3
various hearings for the Specific Plan, sort of a request
4
if you will that there be more ability to review. When I
5
think of that kind of review for an Architecture and Site,
6
for example, is that more like a Planned Development, how
7
that occurs, versus a Specific Plan, which is a zoning
8
scheme and then you fill it in with applications? A Planned
9
Development is a single application and then you manipulate
10
it as you wish. So is one of the options for amending the
11
Specific Plan—and I’m not suggesting that we do this, I
12
just want to know as a matter of intellectual curiosity
13
what our options are—simply eliminating the Specific Plan
14
and saying great, have an application and treat it like a
15
16
Planned Development, and then people are more used to that
17
model? What I’m trying to figure out is where do you end up
18
on that spectrum?
19
JOEL PAULSON: I imagine its definitely within
20
the Council’s purview if you decide you ultimately want to
21
rescind the Specific Plan and have someone go through a
22
typical planning process like other applications do. I
23
think the challenges that creates were discussed throughout
24
the Specific Plan process. A lot of that revolves around
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having multiple owners and then dealing with
2
infrastructure, as well as kind of piecemealing development
3
in a fashion without any real guidance, so then you end up
4
with kind of the first one through the door. Does that set
5
the direction and then everyone falls in line with that, or
6
do you end up with a kind of a hodge-podge depending on the
7
size of the site and the particular use that that applicant
8
come in for? I don't know if Rob has any additional.
9
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I think it’s been well said. The
10
reason why you do a Specific Plan is to do a comprehensive
11
plan of an area so that the developer has, if you want to
12
call it, a roadmap, and how specific that roadmap is is up
13
to Council, but it provides those guidelines.
14
The problem that you would have with doing a
15
16
development on a piecemeal basis is you don’t get the
17
infrastructure. If you recall the application for this, one
18
of the benefits was they were doing mitigation measures
19
that were not necessary for their project. They were
20
mitigating the entire North 40 in one swoop, whereas if you
21
do piecemeal, let’s say you’ve got a project for two acres
22
of residential, the mitigation might be very little. Then
23
another property owner does two acres, and two acres, and
24
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two acres that don’t require the traffic mitigations that
2
you’re able to do through a Specific Plan.
3
I think you all understand, because you were on
4
those committees, there’s a reason why we do the Specific
5
Plan and the importance of it, but with that being said,
6
it’s still the prerogative of Council to decide whether
7
they want to not have a Specific Plan and go back to those
8
individual development applications.
9
LAUREL PREVETTI: If I may just add, another way
10
of looking at this is assume that we maintain a Specific
11
Plan, amended or not, and maybe we look at how we do
12
outreach once an application is filed. So maybe we look
13
internally about how we inform the public and the Council
14
when an application is submitted, so that way the public
15
16
has earlier notification of an application on file. It
17
doesn’t necessarily change the review process, all the
18
deciding bodies would have their same roles, but at least
19
there would be more opportunity for engagement earlier on.
20
So there are some other process type opportunities if the
21
Town wishes to look at those.
22
MAYOR SPECTOR: Further questions?
23
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I just saw the Vice Mayor
2
had her hand up, and if it is related, I wouldn’t go on to
3
a different topic.
4
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right, Vice Mayor.
5
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: This is related. I just wanted
6
to follow on that train of thought real quick. One of the
7
frustrations that I had is we did have Architecture and
8
Site, but site and layout was really not something that we
9
could touch during this last application. So given the
10
Specific Plan parameters, what can we do as a Council to
11
change the process so that discussions like site and layout
12
are things that we can affect before we get into deadlines
13
and other procedural changes that prohibit us from even
14
discussing it?
15
16
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Under your Housing Element, for
17
example, 13.5 acres have been designated as 20 units per
18
acre. One of the ideas is to look at that site map and
19
determine where those 20 acres will lay out so that you can
20
have more control of the whole site, so that a developer
21
doesn’t come in and make that decision for you that you
22
don’t like, and then there are additional acres exactly
23
where you want less density, or more density, and the
24
height and those things.
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I think you did a lot of that by putting the 25’
2
around the edges and 35’ on the interior, but we did not
3
call out the 13.5 acres, and I think that was the biggest
4
issue that you heard from the public, and Council discussed
5
it. I think that’s probably one of the biggest issues,
6
determining where you want that higher density at 20 units
7
per acre.
8
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Sayoc, anything else? All
9
right. Yes, Mr. Rennie.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
11
If I can follow up on that, I actually had this kind of
12
conversation with the Town Manager, but it was a little
13
different than what Mr. Schultz just said. It’s more about
14
I think no matter how specific we try to be, we don’t know
15
16
what we’re going to get and we want to have some time to
17
say we’d really like this moved around, or orient it
18
differently, or something like that. I know it’s not easy,
19
but I think we should take a learning from this process,
20
and I asked you to think about this and you probably
21
haven’t got an answer yet, but it’s really about how do we
22
earlier on do that so we don’t get up to a deadline where
23
we can’t send it back to Planning Commission. Maybe you
24
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don’t have an answer yet, but if you could think about
2
that.
3
LAUREL PREVETTI: Sure. There are several models.
4
The way the Specific Plan is written right now, and the
5
Discretionary Approval Table in Appendix E, Architecture
6
and Site Review really rests with the Planning Commission,
7
so if things work the way this is intended these
8
applications would not be coming to Town Council. Absent
9
the Vesting Tentative Map, it would not have come to Town
10
Council.
11
One option might be to look at whether or not you
12
want a process where the Town Council has an early review
13
of an application just to provide some initial guidance, or
14
perhaps the Conceptual Development Advisory Committee has a
15
16
different role beyond just an economic study as spelled
17
forth in the Specific Plan. So there are some other process
18
options, but Appendix E right now doesn’t really have much
19
of a role for Council.
20
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me follow up on that. If that
21
were the way we might go—of course we’re not doing anything
22
tonight, I guess everybody needs to understand that, we’re
23
just thinking of some ideas, we’re not making any
24
decisions—if that was the way the Council wanted to go and
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the Council wanted more involvement, why couldn’t the plan
2
simply be modified to say that whatever it now says the
3
Planning Commission does, the Planning Commission does it,
4
but it still come up to Council?
5
LAUREL PREVETTI: We could do that as well, make
6
the Planning Commission your recommending body, and then
7
you would have the final authority. That would be a very
8
specific amendment that we could process for you.
9
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Sayoc.
10
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Just to follow on that though,
11
but would it get us around the deadlines? That’s what I
12
keep going back to. How do we look at something? Perhaps
13
CDAC, because CDAC applications come in before an official
14
application is filed, thus the deadline does not begin,
15
16
right?
17
LAUREL PREVETTI: That’s correct, and our typical
18
process is that we don’t bring an application to Planning
19
Commission until it’s deemed complete; that’s been our
20
practice as a town.
21
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Then to follow up on that, we
22
could change the Specific Plan amendment process-wise to
23
say this would come forward to CDAC with a widely
24
circulated public hearing, and put in certain parameters so
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that it makes it so that it’s more publicly accessible. So
2
we can do within the current parameters now?
3
LAUREL PREVETTI: That’s correct.
4
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Okay.
5
MAYOR SPECTOR: Following up on that, one of the
6
issues that truncated our time but was very positive to the
7
community was that study session, whatever we called it,
8
public session, that we had. Had we eliminated that, we
9
would have probably had a couple more months, I believe,
10
two or three more months, to consider this application, is
11
that correct?
12
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
13
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let’s see, Ms. Jensen.
14
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Follow up on that topic
15
16
then. If I could change subjects, I will do that. I guess
17
just an observation for comment from staff. The CDAC,
18
Conceptual Development Advisory Committee, obviously is a
19
where you come in to get feedback before you have a true
20
application, and one of the features of it is that it is
21
nonbinding. So when I hear it being suggested as a
22
preliminary way to do something, I am not sure, and perhaps
23
staff can help me out, that that would be particularly
24
helpful, because it is not binding on the applicant. I
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guess I’m looking for your feedback on that problem, or
2
non-problem, depending on how you look at it.
3
JOEL PAULSON: Right. You’re correct, that’s a
4
typical process, a little bit different with the Specific
5
Plan requirement that requires the CDAC to look at the
6
economic study. That was actually done during the process,
7
so it wasn’t done prior to them submitting an application
8
but it was done in the process, so it doesn’t get around
9
the nonbinding nature of it, and maybe that’s not an
10
adequate forum potentially for that kind of deliberation.
11
We can talk about other options, such as placing
12
language in the Specific Plan that there is a study session
13
with the Planning Commission and/or Council prior to the
14
application being deemed complete. There are things along
15
16
those lines that are possible and may be better forums for
17
that type of review.
18
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me follow up on the CDAC.
19
Being on the CDAC, I understand that this came before the
20
CDAC for the economic study. I don’t think the CDAC is a
21
good forum for what we’re talking about. If your objective
22
is to give the Council and the Town more time, I’m not sure
23
we wouldn’t have had enough time in this go around had it
24
not been for the little detours that we took.
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Ms. Jensen. Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Rennie had his
2
hand up.
3
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you. If I could
4
just add one more thought to this. I think when the story
5
poles go up is when the public really starts getting
6
engaged, and so if we’re trying to get more up front so we
7
have more time, if there is some way we put up story poles.
8
Maybe they’re not technically accurate, maybe they’re just
9
something large to attract attention so that people start
10
paying attention, because I think we don’t end up making a
11
lot of our determinations of how we might want to move
12
things until we get a lot of the public input, so I think
13
we need to somehow attract attention.
14
Posting it on our website, nobody is going to see
15
16
that, right? Well, not nobody, but not many, right? So if
17
somehow start the public part of the process a little bit
18
earlier too.
19
JOEL PAULSON: I think that there are a couple
20
things there. You’re right; typically the story poles go up
21
before we’re going to a hearing. We could have the larger
22
4’x8’ signs with a rendering put up early, potential
23
development, so it flags that.
24
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I think the other piece is we’re trying to
2
utilize more of the social media aspect, and so definitely
3
suggest that if there’s anyone out there who isn’t
4
subscribed to What’s New!, we try to send out a lot of
5
blasts on that. We’re trying to send more out on Facebook.
6
I believe we’re still ending stuff out on Twitter. So
7
utilizing those, and then accompanying that probably with,
8
as Ms. Prevetti mentioned before, some additional, maybe
9
more traditional, outreach earlier in the process.
10
The Planning Department also has a Pending
11
Planning Projects page, and we’re trying to get electronic
12
versions of plans, so that is also another good avenue for
13
folks to gain information. Those are some other options,
14
but getting notice out earlier, we can look at options to
15
16
do that.
17
ROBERT SCHULTZ: And then clean up language on
18
deemed complete on the story poles. If you recall, we
19
actually were in dispute over whether they were deemed
20
thth
complete on the March 16 date or the May 5 date when the
21
story poles went up, so I think that’s language that does
22
need to be cleaned up so we know exactly they’re not deemed
23
complete until the story poles and how many days that needs
24
to be before, let’s say, for example, if there was a study
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session. That’s another item that we can put in there that
2
needs to be done so it’s clear and the applicant
3
understands, instead of just referring back to state law,
4
which then got convoluted. It’s an item that we definitely
5
need clean up on.
6
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
7
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I want to follow up on
8
this, and maybe there might be others, and then a different
9
topic.
10
All of the suggestions that I’m hearing have to
11
do with generalized planning processes, so they could
12
relate to this application, another application, a
13
different application, CVS, Alberto Way, whatever it might
14
be, and I’m wondering whether that is properly contained in
15
16
the particular document for a particular application like
17
the Specific Plan, or is more appropriately a look at the
18
planning process that doesn’t necessarily involve an
19
amendment to this, except perhaps like where it goes at
20
what time, depending upon whatever that review is?
21
JOEL PAULSON: That’s definitely possible. We can
22
look at our processes and try to get some of that
23
memorialized via policy or some other mechanism.
24
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: And certainly from my standpoint
2
the story pole could happen on any project, so you’re
3
correct, that issue could crop up again. The idea of having
4
a study session for every application throughout the Town,
5
I don't know if that’s always applicable.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I wasn’t suggesting that,
7
I just wanted to understand whether or not it was more of a
8
comprehensive review of how this worked versus amendment to
9
the Specific Plan.
10
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right, before we go onto
11
other questions, I understand that the questions that we’re
12
now asking of Staff can segue into other issues, but
13
ultimately after we all complete our questions of Staff I
14
will be looking to Council for any suggestions they have
15
16
specifically related to the Specific Plan. Ms. Jensen.
17
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: My next topic is sort
18
two, housing and heights, because I think they’re related.
19
We heard a number of suggestions regarding limiting the
20
heights of different buildings, and I’m assuming that for a
21
purely commercial building, that’s fine, we can do that.
22
I’m wondering what the answer is to limiting buildings that
23
also have housing, because can’t an applicant come in for a
24
height exception, or open space exception, or setback
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exception, whatever it may be, under state density bonus
2
law regardless of what the Town sets as a height limit?
3
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
4
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: So the building that
5
would be permanently affected by a height limitation would
6
be standalone commercial or office building?
7
JOEL PAULSON: Correct.
8
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: But once it has residents
9
in it, someone can ask for a density bonus under state law
10
and they can get an exception to that limitation?
11
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
12
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Does it have to do with
13
open space as well, or that’s just a setback in terms of
14
the setback?
15
16
JOEL PAULSON: I’d look to the Town Attorney for
17
clarification, but I think they can request exceptions to a
18
number of various areas, and that would be one. If there is
19
a specific requirement, if they show why they can’t meet
20
that requirement and make that project work, then we would
21
have to review that request and make specific findings if
22
we thought that it wasn’t appropriate.
23
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just so I understand, for
24
an amendment that opposes the height limitation, or open
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space, or setback, or view corridor, or whatever it might
2
be, if that building includes a residential component and
3
the person asks for a density bonus, they can ask for an
4
exception for that, and we can’t do anything about that per
5
state law, correct?
6
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Correct. I think if you require
7
more open space, I don't know what the number would be, but
8
throwing out a 50% open space requirement and building that
9
can only be 25’ tall, I am quite certain you would get in
10
your next application a density bonus requirement and then
11
trying to obtain an exception for that. As you remember,
12
the more affordable units you put on, the more exceptions
13
you can ask for.
14
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right, let’s go to Ms. Sayoc,
15
16
please.
17
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Specific to the height
18
requirement, the state density exception, that would apply
19
to any development in town that meets the criteria,
20
regardless of it’s on the North 40 or at the CVS property
21
is they decide to build an affordable… Well, that’s not
22
necessarily a zone, but any of the areas that are zoned
23
residential, if they meet the state density rules and
24
provisions, they can ask for these exceptions, correct?
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: Correct.
2
MAYOR SPECTOR: Then let me follow up on that.
3
Does the exception apply no matter what the configuration
4
of the structure, i.e., can one ask for a height exception
5
for a cottage cluster? A cottage cluster would normally be,
6
I’ll make something up, 20’ high, and it’s an individual
7
unit home. Can you ask for, in some views, an unreasonable
8
exception in that scenario?
9
ROBERT SCHULTZ: There is a requirement of
10
feasibility, so as long as they can show that they need
11
that exception in order to be able to build the affordable
12
housing units or the density that you’ve requested at the
13
20 units, then yes, they’re allowed that.
14
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen, further questions?
15
16
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Yes, a different topic of
17
the open space. The Town has definitions of open space in
18
its General Plan and various other ordinances, how we
19
define it, what counts, what doesn’t count. The Specific
20
Plan has to be consistent with the General Plan, so can you
21
put the cart before the horse and change the open space
22
definition in the Specific Plan, then cause the other
23
things to be conforming, or do the other things have to be
24
conforming and make it open space? So can you do whatever
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you want in the Specific Plan, but then you need to change
2
the other things, or the other things dictate what you can
3
do?
4
JOEL PAULSON: I’ll go ahead and start. I think
5
that you can, and we have in this instance. We don’t have a
6
30% requirement for open space in any other zone in the
7
Town. There is not that I recall a requirement for 30% open
8
space in the General Plan. You can do that. I think where
9
you would run into an issue where you’d have to modify
10
those documents is if it was in the General Plan that you
11
had to have 20% open space and the Specific Plan said you
12
only have to have 10%, so you reduce it.
13
ROBERT SCHULTZ: In a perfect world, when you do
14
that and you have in your General Plan an open space
15
16
requirement of 20%, and then your Specific Plan says 30%,
17
you’d at the same time go back to your General Plan and
18
says it’s 20% everywhere, but we’ve designated in the North
19
40 Specific Plan that it’s 30%, and then they are
20
consistent. That’s a perfect world, but like Joel said, if
21
you don’t and you’re more restrictive, then you’re all
22
right.
23
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: A follow up to that, so
24
two follow ups. We heard about the state law that because
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it identified that it had a certain number of parklands and
2
open spaces that we could not enact the state law that
3
required a developer to give us more open space for public
4
use for parks. That’s the Quimby Act. Given that, can the
5
Town then ask for more and say I want playgrounds, or
6
whatever it is that we’ve had the suggestions for, or a
7
community pool that ends up being a public use for public
8
recreation on a private property given that we’ve
9
identified that we have enough?
10
LAUREL PREVETTI: On thing the Town Council could
11
do with the Specific Plan is to identify what open space
12
counts towards the public open space. Right now the
13
Specific Plan identifies paseos and other elements that
14
could count toward public open space. We could very much
15
16
tighten that up if that’s the will of the Council.
17
In terms of things like community pools, that
18
would be something where if a developer is offering that we
19
could then work with them to see how we could handle it
20
from an operational standpoint, but there would not be a
21
nexus, so to speak, where we could require it upfront.
22
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: And if the Town wanted to
23
do that, presumably it would buy the property and build a
24
pool. The same with a wildlife conservancy.
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LAUREL PREVETTI: True, yes, if there is a
2
significant amount that needs to be set aside for wildlife
3
corridors. We don’t have an EIR that supports the need for
4
that from a biological resource standpoint.
5
MAYOR SPECTOR: We have a question from Ms.
6
Sayoc.
7
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: To follow up on that, putting
8
a public easement requirement on private property, could we
9
do that? We could. Okay.
10
MAYOR SPECTOR: And just for the Council, how I
11
anticipate us moving forward is, for example, the Vice
12
Mayor at some point could verbalize ideas that she has for
13
tweaking the Specific Plan, and you might have that idea,
14
but that idea would then go through the General Plan,
15
16
Planning Commission, and the Council. It might survive, and
17
it might not. Ms. Jensen.
18
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I’m trying to lump these
19
into categories. Another suggestion that we had from a
20
couple people was that we needed to write something into
21
the Specific Plan that was going to designate a particular
22
number of affordable housing categories across the Specific
23
Plan area, i.e., I want ten Very Low, I want 20 Low, I want
24
whatever it is.
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I know from working on the Housing Element
2
Advisory Board that the state was not happy with that kind
3
of designation on our Affordable Housing Overlay Zones,
4
because we had designation of a certain percentage of that
5
zone to be at a certain income level, and the state came
6
back and said no, you can’t do that, because that’s unduly
7
restrictive of someone being able to come in and do that.
8
What I was hoping the staff could explain to us
9
is am I right that that’s a problem in trying to designate
10
it into particular income categories? If it’s not a
11
problem, can we actually dictate that to a developer? Thou
12
shall build ten Very Low whatever that might be? And if
13
we’re able to do that kind of designation, what does that
14
do to our certified Housing Element?
15
16
JOEL PAULSON: I think it becomes, as you
17
mentioned, the state perceives that as an additional
18
barrier to development. You’re basically setting the
19
parameters so strictly that you limit the opportunities for
20
development of the site, so it becomes a barrier to
21
development, so that would probably not be something that
22
the state would deem to be acceptable.
23
The Housing Element at that point, depending on
24
what that looked like, that’s a state amendment, so we’d
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have to look at that. I think the potential amendment that
2
the Council could consider would be there’s been a lot of
3
talk about spreading units across, so whether you set a
4
minimum or a maximum number of acres, let’s say, in each
5
district, that’s something that we can probably work with
6
and that probably does not trigger Housing Element
7
modification, but I’d look to the attorney to confirm or
8
deny that.
9
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I think the quick answer is no,
10
we cannot do that. For a developer to come in, if we’re
11
talking deed restricted affordable housing units, they’re
12
not required to do that. Under this or any other, they can
13
develop it at the density that they want. In this case it
14
could be 270 units is what is picked, and if they want to
15
16
come in and do just 270 units, there’s no requirement that
17
we can do that requires that under the state density bonus
18
to say so many have to be affordable housing. Under a BMP
19
program we can require that, but not under the state
20
density program.
21
Then, as Joel said, if you start to get into
22
those categories where the state says are you trying to
23
make it so difficult that no housing can be done there,
24
then we get into the fact that when we just talk affordable
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housing, where it gets mixed up is by state when it’s 20
2
units per acre. They determine that that is affordable
3
housing, even though we might not consider it affordable
4
housing, because as we heard during testimony, it was going
5
to cost over $1 million per unit.
6
So getting into the idea of we’re going to say
7
exactly how many units and what category they are is going
8
to be very difficult for the state to approve.
9
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Just a quick follow up.
11
We do have a BMP program where we require below market rate
12
houses, so the question is can we require what level of
13
below market in that program?
14
JOEL PAULSON: I can’t remember the exact
15
16
language, and I’ll try to pull it up, but I think there is
17
something in the Specific Plan that requires a minimum of
18
25% of the housing be BMPs. I just can’t remember if that
19
was in the Moderate and Low category, because our current
20
BMP guidelines for development require the units… Let’s say
21
you’re required to do ten, but you’re allowed to split
22
them; you do five Moderate and five Low. Rob is thumbing
23
through now to see if there is anything specific in there
24
regarding that, but that would be the BMP guidelines as
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they are now. Above and beyond that, I guess you could
2
request it, but then you get into that slippery slope of
3
where does that start leaning towards an additional
4
barrier?
5
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: This is a related
7
question with respect to the size of a unit. This did not
8
come up in the Housing Element Advisory Board, so I don't
9
know whether it affects anything or not, but once you
10
restrict a size of a unit does anyone on the staff have any
11
experience with how the state treats that as either causing
12
a barrier to housing, or not?
13
LAUREL PREVETTI: It wouldn’t be considered a
14
barrier. You would basically be introducing another housing
15
16
type or another parameter for your Specific Plan. I do want
17
to say though that micro units aren’t always affordable or
18
more affordable. I think the example in San Francisco where
19
there is so much pent up housing demand that builders are
20
happy to build micro units and create a lot of housing, but
21
then they’re still being sold or rented at market rates. So
22
we can certainly try to reduce the size of the units to
23
perhaps meet other objectives, but you may not achieve the
24
affordability that you might think.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: But you might increase your
2
chances from a 2,500 square foot unit.
3
LAUREL PREVETTI: Yes.
4
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
5
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just a couple more. One
6
of the suggestions was mandatory underground parking, and
7
one of the parameters in addition to hopefully not changing
8
our certified Housing Element was not requiring a new EIR.
9
As I was listening to a suggestion about the underground
10
parking, I was wondering if you change by digging out the
11
parking, then you change drainage, you change utility, you
12
change whatever it may be, planting ability, landscaping
13
ability, dig up Indian burial, have you created the
14
potential for an EIR modification when you do that?
15
16
JOEL PAULSON: There are currently mitigation
17
measures in relation to cultural resources. The one that
18
pops into my head I can’t recall whether they’re going to
19
be bringing dirt on, so there is the potential for creating
20
additional off haul, which could create additional trips
21
from a hauling perspective. But there are specific
22
mitigation measures, and we’d have to run those models to
23
see if we’re still within those thresholds, and so that is
24
a potential, but we’d have to look closer at that.
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: I think that’s where you have to
2
look at the goals you’re trying to obtain. The minute you
3
do underground, that makes the cost of each unit go up, and
4
when you don’t have affordable deed restrictions on each,
5
then the developer obviously has to factor that into the
6
development costs. You are increasing costs any time you
7
dig basements or whatever, and in this case garages
8
underneath, so that’s going to be a factor toward your
9
affordability.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I think just maybe three
11
or four more things.
12
One question, the Albright project was mentioned.
13
Is that a Planned Development?
14
JOEL PAULSON: We have two Alberto Way projects.
15
16
So the one at the corner of…
17
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I’m sorry, it’s 401, the
18
one that was just mentioned tonight.
19
JOEL PAULSON: That one is not a Planned
20
Development. They are coming in under current zoning
21
requirements.
22
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Does the Staff know the
23
square footage of Trader Joe’s and King’s Court shopping
24
center?
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JOEL PAULSON: King’s Court shopping center is
2
approximately 80,000 square feet, and the Trader Joe’s,
3
which I believe is the Village Square, is approximately
4
46,000 square feet.
5
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just two more. One is the
6
history of the North 40 vis-à-vis Highway 85, and I
7
happened to be at a Highway 85 Advisory Committee yesterday
8
where someone stood up and said that the corridor for
9
Highway 85 was mapped in 1956. Ms. Quintana was talking
10
about when did this happen, when did that happen, and I
11
know when I was doing the North 40 planning it didn’t have
12
anything to do with 85, it had to do with unifying property
13
owners for infrastructure essentially, so I was wondering
14
if the Town had any input on the history of… Was that part
15
16
of the Town, was that not part of the Town, and did Highway
17
85 have anything to do with it?
18
JOEL PAULSON: I don’t have that information,
19
unfortunately.
20
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: And the last thing, I
21
promised I would ask Mr. Morley how he would figure out
22
real time traffic counts for conditions that didn’t yet
23
exist?
24
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MATT MORLEY: That’s a bit of a puzzle. I think
2
that as you suggested, I’ll point to the ITE and the
3
standards that are set forth both by regional
4
transportation organizations and the Town General Plan on
5
how to measure traffic. I’d also point out that from the
6
Town’s perspective having a baseline that’s set earlier is
7
probably an advantage, because it causes the developer to
8
mitigate for impacts that are occurring between the
9
baseline is set and the actual development.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: One more follow up on
11
that traffic and potential EIR risk studies. One of the
12
suggestions is to spread housing out, change whatever
13
commercial is, et cetera, I know from having studied this
14
that, for example, mixed-use development potentially has a
15
16
different kind of traffic count than another kind of
17
development. I know that medical office is a very, very
18
high traffic count. I know that office is a pretty high
19
traffic count. I’m not sure where residential falls under
20
that conundrum, so once you change where the distribution
21
of housing is and the types, mixed-use, cottage cluster,
22
whatever it might be, do you change the traffic patterns
23
significantly enough that you would now open up your study?
24
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MATT MORLEY: Potentially, we’d want to take a
2
look at that at a high level. The North 40 is in a unique
3
location with the access to freeways being as it is, and
4
the trip distribution there may not change significantly
5
based on what type of development is where, but we’d really
6
want to take a look at that from a traffic engineering
7
perspective if that’s a direction that was being
8
considered.
9
JOEL PAULSON: I just offer that when the EIR was
10
completed it actually looked at 364 residential units and
11
580,000 square feet of commercial, so we do have some
12
cushion in there. That relocation, we definitely can go
13
through that analysis, but it more than likely would not
14
require additional environmental review.
15
16
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Thank you. I think that’s
17
it.
18
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Mr. Rennie.
19
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
20
If I could continue on the traffic idea, there was one
21
speaker that suggested traffic improvements, which I think
22
most of were actually in the proposal. The proposal
23
includes a second lane onto the highway; they mentioned
24
that. Saving land along Los Gatos Boulevard to eventually
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put in a third lane on that side of it. I think there is
2
also a third left-turn lane from Los Gatos Boulevard to
3
Lark, and a third left-turn lane from Lark to Los Gatos
4
Boulevard. I understand those are all part of the current
5
proposal. Are those tied to this proposal, or are they tied
6
to any future proposal also, we get that no matter what
7
comes in the future instead?
8
MATT MORLEY: They’re required because of the
9
CEQA work done through the Traffic Impact Analysis and
10
would be a required mitigation. Where they occur depends on
11
the size of the project and the project that is put
12
forward. The project that came forward initially in the
13
North 40 included those improvements with a future fair
14
share contribution by the next projects that come along.
15
16
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: And everything I
17
mentioned was correct, right?
18
MATT MORLEY: Correct.
19
ROBERT SCHULTZ: That kind of goes along with
20
what I was saying earlier about the benefit of a Specific
21
Plan. Because you have an EIR attached to that you can get
22
that done by this developer, but if you did not have a
23
Specific Plan then the development would come in as a
24
development, and that project alone would have to do its
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own new CEQA and you may not get all of those lanes, like I
2
said, if it was just for a three or four acre parcel that
3
was being developed. Clearly it wouldn’t require three
4
lanes and all of those other improvements.
5
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: But we might get money
6
instead, which gets accumulated with others and eventually
7
get those improvements?
8
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Yes, true.
9
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions of Staff? Ms.
10
Jensen.
11
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just wanted to follow up
12
on that to make sure I understand. I know that the CEQA and
13
the EIR had mitigation measures for traffic improvements
14
that need to take place for a certain amount of stuff that
15
16
was studied. The current denied application proposed
17
various things. I take it that because it is denied those
18
things no longer need to be constructed by certainly this
19
developer or this application? So if I came in and I owned,
20
let’s say, property by Burton Road or something, I wouldn’t
21
have to construct all of the things that were proposed on
22
this development, correct? I could just do my portion?
23
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Correct.
24
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
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COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
2
I had a question related to another comment a speaker had.
3
They suggested a 300’ planting strip of trees on 17, and
4
I’m actually not good at all on how to figure out how many
5
acres that is taking up. Mr. Spilsbury left, so I can’t ask
6
him. I wonder if you have any idea how many acres 300’
7
along the 17 would take up?
8
JOEL PAULSON: If you give me a couple of
9
seconds, I’ll run a rough calculation.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Okay, thanks.
11
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? On my left side,
12
Ms. Sayoc.
13
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: I’ll start off with two easy
14
ones first, and then the third more general one.
15
16
Have there been any other applications that have
17
been submitted, specifically the discussion of the hotel?
18
JOEL PAULSON: No applications for the North 40
19
have been submitted.
20
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Has anyone given any
21
inclination of submitting anything any time soon?
22
JOEL PAULSON: Staff has had a number of
23
conversations with individuals, because there are some
24
parcels near the Burton intersection that are currently
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1
being marketed, so we have a lot of discussions on
2
potential applications. Generally, depending on the
3
application, we suggest that they go through the CDAC, so
4
that really would be probably the first step that someone
5
would go through if any application was serious and someone
6
had the property under contract.
7
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: The next question with regard
8
to process, there was a question in the Staff Report about
9
why the sequence of meetings and why those couldn’t be fast
10
tracked. I know there are certain noticing requirements
11
with each meeting, but can you talk about realistically is
12
that the earliest? What are some of the other things on
13
Staff’s workload that basically trumps this? I know we have
14
several things that have been waiting.
15
16
JOEL PAULSON: Staff does have a resource
17
challenge. Frankly, I even think this is aggressive. To
18
assume we’ll get through amendments, through the General
19
Plan Committee, Planning Commission, and Town Council in
20
one meeting may or may not be realistic, but I think given
21
the length of time that we spent on the Specific Plan this
22
approximately three-month process is pretty quick. But if
23
the Council has other considerations, we can look at having
24
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additional special meetings with the Planning Commission
2
and/or General Plan Committee.
3
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Follow up on that. I know
4
there are only a certain amount of times you can change
5
your General Plan, and so the a Specific Plan change would
6
also fall under those requirements of you can’t… I forgot,
7
is it four times a year that we can only change our General
8
Plan?
9
JOEL PAULSON: Generally it’s four times per
10
element per year, so we probably would not have an issue
11
there, and depending on the amendment it may not even
12
require amendments to the Specific Plan, but we would
13
analyze that, depending on what the Council’s direction
14
was.
15
16
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Then my last question, it’s
17
more of the future RHNA, the regional housing allocation
18
that we always have to deal with every eight years. There
19
has been talk about different scenarios, all commercial,
20
all residential, but one of the things that has been
21
brought up is more office space. I know we have to maintain
22
this jobs/housing balance, and I know we haven’t set the
23
allocation formulas yet, but should I not be worried that
24
the more office buildings we intend to put there could in
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the future mean more housing somewhere else in town? Is
2
that silly to be worried about that?
3
LAUREL PREVETTI: It’s not silly at all; we just
4
don’t know what the methodology is going to be, whether
5
it’s going to be a jobs/housing balance, whether it’s going
6
to be the increment of new jobs that have occurred over
7
some period of time versus what is prospective. It’s very
8
hard to say. We are looking at perhaps having Santa Clara
9
County figure out its own methodology next time around, so
10
we might have a little bit more say in what those factors
11
are.
12
I think for the Council the best thing that you
13
can do for the North 40 is really plan what you would like
14
to see there in terms of land uses, in terms of
15
16
preferences, and that’s really the best planning that we
17
could do for our town.
18
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me follow up on that with
19
Staff. We talk about things, throw out words like “We are
20
going to have a hotel,” or, “We are going to have offices,”
21
but what we, the Council, will be doing is possibly
22
amending the Specific Plan in a limited fashion that
23
doesn’t require a modification of the General Plan or of
24
the EIR. So we could say we want it to be all office, or we
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change the Specific Plan to be all office, but as a
2
practical matter the Specific Plan will more likely than
3
not survive with options that will be dependent upon the
4
developer to decide what options he or she chooses.
5
LAUREL PREVETTI: That’s correct, and that’s why
6
it’s really important that if there are certain things that
7
you want to see in certain districts, that we clarify that
8
now, so that way there is certainty for those things that
9
you absolutely want to see, and then those things where
10
you’re more flexible, you leave it more general, so that
11
way the market can determine what will work best at that
12
time.
13
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions before we get
14
into our discussion? Seeing none, I see a question from
15
16
Staff. Mr. Paulson, you don’t have a question, you have an
17
answer.
18
JOEL PAULSON: I do, and I will preface this by
19
saying that this is a rough order of magnitude number, but
20
plus or minus two acres it’s probably in the 17 or 18 acre
21
range. One of the widest points of the Specific Plan area,
22
the depth of the entire site from Los Gatos Boulevard to
23
Highway 17 is about 880’, and then it pitches down and you
24
wrap around as you get up towards Highway 85. It’s a pretty
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significant amount if you have a 300’ swath, and that’s
2
really just looking along the highway frontages; that
3
wouldn’t include Lark or Los Gatos Boulevard.
4
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
5
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Before we have our
6
discussion I just want to understand what precisely the
7
expectation is, that we’re simply going to make
8
suggestions, they’re not going to take the form of a
9
motion, and that those suggestions are then going to be
10
vetted by the GPC, the Planning Commission, and eventually
11
the Town Council if any of them come through?
12
MAYOR SPECTOR: What Staff anticipates we will do
13
now, although not every Councilperson has to do exactly the
14
same thing, is that each Councilperson will have
15
16
suggestions as to how the Specific Plan might be modified.
17
Ms. Prevetti will be taking notes. When everybody on the
18
Council who wants to speak has spoken, I will look at her
19
and I will say, “Do you need anything further?” and she
20
will tell me yes or no.
21
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I think that’s an excellent
22
process, but at the end of that I think there is one motion
23
we’d like to have, and that’s at least a motion saying that
24
you agreed to allow the process to go forward with the
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potential amendments through the GPC and the Planning
2
Commission and back to you. You’re not saying these
3
amendments are going to occur, and you can still say at the
4
end I want no amendments, but I think we still need on the
5
record that the Council, or at least the Council majority,
6
wanted us to go through this process with the committees.
7
MAYOR SPECTOR: The General Plan Committee, the
8
Planning Commission, and back to Council. All right, will
9
you just remind us? I think I’ll remember. Now it’s back to
10
us. Mr. Leonardis.
11
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: One last question.
12
What is the current status of the Grosvenor, the Eden
13
Housing, and the SummerHill Homes folks? I don’t see any
14
presence at this meeting this evening. Are they still
15
16
interested in this process?
17
ROBERT SCHULTZ: I was going to make a joke, but
18
th
I won’t. The final decision was made September 6, so under
19
state law they have 90 days in which they can file
20
litigation. They have requested to look at certain files
21
that are open to anyone, public records, but that’s from my
22
standpoint, all I have heard from the parties.
23
MAYOR SPECTOR: Did you say they have until
24
th
December 6 to file suit?
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: Ninety days, whatever. There
2
might be the 31 days in October, but it’s 90 days from your
3
th
decision on September 6.
4
MAYOR SPECTOR: Okay, good. Ms. Sayoc.
5
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Just so I understand the
6
process, we can throw out ideas, this thing goes to the
7
General Plan Committee, they hold a public hearing and they
8
hear testimony. Are we envisioning that they come to some
9
consensus on what revised amendments would look like to the
10
Specific Plan that they then send to the Planning
11
Commission, or are they also throwing out ideas?
12
MAYOR SPECTOR: I’m going to jump in then,
13
because sometimes the word “consensus”… I’m assuming the
14
General Plan Committee will be making motions, and the
15
16
Planning Commission will be making motions.
17
JOEL PAULSON: We will definitely be looking for
18
motions. Sometimes those will fall to consensus or majority
19
if you don’t want use consensus but the majority. I
20
anticipate they will take into consideration all of your
21
suggestions. They may come up with their own suggestions as
22
well, both the GPC and the Planning Commission, and then
23
all of that would get rolled forward to the Council for a
24
final determination.
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VICE MAYOR SAYOC: May I have a follow up? What
2
will come back to Council, a redlined version of the
3
Specific Plan?
4
JOEL PAULSON: Yes.
5
VICE MAYOR SAYOC: Okay.
6
MAYOR SPECTOR: Redlined by the determinations
7
made ultimately by the Planning Commission before it gets
8
to us?
9
JOEL PAULSON: Correct.
10
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
11
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Another process question,
12
I guess. Other times when the Council has looked at
13
modifications of various things there has often been
14
discussion around should the Council tell those advisory
15
16
bodies what to do, i.e., the Council says Alcohol Policy
17
should be like blah-blah, and then the controversy is
18
should we be telling them that, or should they be figuring
19
it out? This is kind of a different thing where we’re
20
telling them that. Do they have the option to say no, we
21
don’t like it and we think it is just fine the way it is?
22
MAYOR SPECTOR: I know the answer from Staff’s
23
point of view, but I will defer to Ms. Prevetti.
24
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LAUREL PREVETTI: Thank you. We’ve been careful
2
in the Staff Reports coming up to this evening to say
3
really this evening we are identifying potential
4
amendments, so you’re not yet making a recommendation or
5
directing a particular answer. You have advisory bodies to
6
assist you with your final decision making after they’ve
7
considered all the material, and they may winnow it down a
8
little bit or maybe add to it; I didn’t really anticipate
9
that part, but I guess conceptually they could do that. But
10
ultimately they will be making recommendations, and then
11
you are the final deciding body under state law for
12
amendments to the Specific Plan.
13
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
14
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Just a final follow up.
15
16
I’m assuming that the members of the public who have made
17
suggestions tonight and they don’t hear those become part
18
of the “identified” amendment can go to those other
19
meetings and say, “Why don’t you consider the suggestion
20
that I had?” and there could be a universe of things. They
21
could take Council’s suggestions. They could take
22
additional suggestions from members of the public and they
23
could recommend those. They could recommend the Council. Or
24
they could recommend nothing.
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JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct.
2
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Okay.
3
MAYOR SPECTOR: Seeing no arms up for questions,
4
I will go back now to the Council for your input, if any,
5
on the Specific Plan. Mr. Rennie.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: I’ll go ahead and make my
7
first suggestion. When I was thinking about these my
8
understanding was we were not trying to do any major
9
rewrites and that we were supposed to tie them back to
10
reasons for denial, so my list is a little bit limited by
11
what I thought the parameters were.
12
The first thing I would suggest is in the Lark
13
perimeter area we set a maximum density of eight units per
14
acre, and possibly the perimeter district should be made a
15
16
bit larger. We should remove the requirement for cottage
17
clusters so that it makes it easier for these eight units
18
per acre to go there. We should increase the total units on
19
the North 40, because currently all the 270 units have to
20
be built at 20 units per acre, so we have to increase by
21
the number that could fit in this eight units per acre in
22
that perimeter.
23
So that would be my first suggestion.
24
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me respond to the extent that
2
you do not… The reason for denial is not the only input
3
that you can give. Staff wants to weigh in on that.
4
JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct. We’re open to all
5
suggestions.
6
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: I forgot to tie in. What
7
I was targeting was this idea of we want less intensity at
8
Lark and increasing intensity as we go across, so that’s
9
why I’m suggesting limiting the density and adding more
10
houses to allow us to limit the density starting at Lark.
11
Again, that was one of our reasons for denial, and that’s
12
why I came up with that one.
13
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
14
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I’m sorry for beating a
15
16
dead horse, but I just wanted to make sure I understand
17
what we’re doing here. When the Councilpeople raise their
18
hands and they say, “I have the following suggestions for
19
amendments,” and there’s not going to be a motion, I take
20
it that there is further opportunity to support, argue
21
against, be neutral, but right now what we’re doing is
22
we’re stating something and we’re not having a debate on
23
it, because we’re not having a motion. Am I right about
24
that?
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Yes and no. I mean, you can say
2
whatever you want.
3
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: To what end? If we’re
4
just saying my suggestion is XYZ and we’re not going to
5
have a motion to vote on it, then I’m wondering what the
6
value is in arguing the point.
7
MAYOR SPECTOR: We’re making suggestions and
8
Staff is taking note of them, unless nobody has suggestions
9
except Mr. Rennie. Mr. Leonardis.
10
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
11
Spector. I was just going through a list of things that I
12
heard primarily from the public and the many pieces of
13
correspondence that we’ve received on this, and some of you
14
may have heard some of these things before.
15
16
One, underground parking. Explored.
17
Two, more open space.
18
Three, housing units spread across all three
19
zones.
20
Four, CUPs for the commercial or the Business
21
District.
22
Five, widening Los Gatos Boulevard.
23
Six, “shalls” instead of “should.” I think I got
24
that right.
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Seven, smaller, more affordable units.
2
That’s all I have so far.
3
MAYOR SPECTOR: All right, well let me follow up
4
on Mr. Leonardis. He’s more succinct than I might be.
5
First of all, I know there were some people who
6
hoped that the North 40 consideration would take a bigger
7
break than we’ve had, but I appreciate all the information
8
that we received over the last two months. It may have been
9
difficult sometimes, but I think what we’re doing now is
10
not only going to be helpful to the Town, but to any future
11
applicants, the property owners, and the Staff, so thank
12
you, everybody.
13
What I am going to suggest or put out there, it
14
overlaps a lot with what Mr. Leonardis said, maybe in a
15
16
little more detail.
17
In residential, smaller units, maybe 900 to 1,500
18
square feet.
19
No CUPs for cottage clusters.
20
Apply the Town’s BMP Ordinance.
21
Spread the units throughout the North 40.
22
On residential, the last input I have is really a
23
question, and it’s not a question now, but it will be a
24
question as it goes down the road. Is it possible for the
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Town to allow a developer to have a density bonus if the
2
developer requests it, but not necessarily has those 13.5
3
acres in a certain location, i.e., spread throughout the
4
property?
5
With respect to commercial, have the CUP
6
requirements be the same as downtown. Then when we have the
7
CUPs and you look at the CUP Ordinance, which is 29.20.190,
8
have the deciding bodies then use the CUP findings to look
9
to what they would like on the North 40, i.e., commercial
10
uses for the northern part of town, the North 40, and the
11
adjoining northern portion of Los Gatos. Have these uses,
12
have a Market Hall, but have these commercial uses be in
13
the Market Hall. In other words, have the CUPs and then use
14
the findings required of a CUP to address our unmet needs.
15
16
With respect to the Guiding Principles, confirm
17
that the Guiding Principles have wording in the Specific
18
Plan that has mandates… First of all, that it’s in the
19
Specific Plan, and that it’s mandatory language rather than
20
permissive language.
21
Have real open space.
22
I’m not sure about underground parking, because I
23
don't know about all the ramifications, but conceptually
24
consider underground parking.
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Right now that all I have. Mr. Rennie.
2
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
3
I have some more on my list, but I want to maybe add to my
4
list from what I’m hearing.
5
I heard quite a bit of spread the units all over
6
the North 40, and it concerns me because I can’t come up
7
with a visual of what that looks like, so I would say if
8
we’re going to spread units we need to find a way that
9
they’re in neighborhoods. You don’t just randomly put a few
10
houses, and then some commercial, and then a few houses. I
11
mean, imagine going down Santa Cruz Boulevard and having
12
one block of townhouse, and then one block of commercial,
13
and then a block of townhouse.
14
I’m trying to understand if we only allow, let’s
15
16
say, 80 units in the Lark District, at 20 units per acre
17
that’s only four acres out of the Lark District, which is
18
11 acres. So what do we do with the rest of those acres? I
19
don’t think we can require all the rest of that to be open
20
space without it turning into a taking, and if we would
21
require all the rest of it to be open space, it would be
22
even more open space, because I’m assuming you wouldn’t
23
have four acres that are solid block. The first thing on my
24
list then would be to make sure that you somehow have a
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1
vision of how you’re spreading these units to make it fit
2
with the other uses and fit in this neighborhood idea.
3
Let me go to my second one. I would also suggest
4
that we don’t allow residential on Los Gatos Boulevard,
5
that we only allow commercial or mixed-use on Los Gatos
6
Boulevard. That’s what’s there now, and the current
7
proposal tried to stick two houses in there that seemed out
8
of place, so that would be another proposal.
9
Next on my list, which I know will be unpopular
10
with some, but I would argue we should increase the height
11
about to where we had it at 45’, as long as there is more
12
open space. I feel pretty strongly that that’s going to
13
create a better development, because we can get fewer tall
14
buildings that can be aligned with views between them, and
15
16
we don’t end up with this squashed warehouse look. Because
17
remember, we’ve got to build 20 units per acre. Some people
18
suggested dropping the height limit to 25’. I don't know
19
how we’d get 20 units per acre in a 25’ limit without
20
squashing things even more and having nothing between the
21
buildings.
22
I think more importantly, by going to the 45’
23
height with more open space we can get a podium style
24
building where we can get underground parking. We can now
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have room to put an elevator in it so that you have the
2
shaft that sticks up a little bit, so there’s room for the
3
shaft, so now you can build a unit that has elevators and
4
you can do single floor flats, which are going to be
5
appealing to seniors and hopefully Gen-Yers.
6
We can much better address our unmet needs by
7
allowing some height. We can address the view corridors and
8
I think end up with a better development that way.
9
Next on my list, I think you mentioned it, was to
10
reduce the max size of some of the units. I would have said
11
1,700 square feet max, again, to sort of encourage less
12
expensive units.
13
I think that’s it for now.
14
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Mr. Leonardis.
15
16
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
17
Spector. Before when I gave my list it was only a partial
18
list just to start the conversation, but gleaning further
19
from the public testimony and the many pieces of
20
correspondence that we received, there was mention of
21
senior housing being at ground level, and the opposite of
22
what Mr. Rennie just said, the height of the residential
23
reduced to 25’.
24
Public access easements for the open space.
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1
This was said at our last meeting. When we look
2
at this project in terms of the Lark District, the
3
Transition District, and the Northern District, I think
4
it’s important that we look at it in terms of the entirety
5
of the project. The direction that the project started
6
going in was just the Lark District was going to get built,
7
and perhaps those districts may get built down the line by
8
someone else, or maybe not, or how soon, or what’s actually
9
going to go there. I want to look at it as one entire
10
project and a commitment to what is going where is decided
11
up front. It may not be all built at once, but it has to be
12
determined up front. If the hotel is going in the Northern
13
District, that’s what will ultimately go there. It won’t
14
change later that we say there’s a hotel going there and
15
16
there will be more housing there or something like that.
17
The possibility of moving the houses away from
18
Highway 17 and putting commercial out there. There were
19
folks that spoke of health risks; black lung or whatever
20
was mentioned. If we have an opportunity to look at this
21
thing again, maybe we should look at putting the commercial
22
out there, or putting office out there, or something
23
possibly.
24
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Exploring commercial in the Lark District; Mr.
2
Spilsbury mentioned that. I think that’s a good idea,
3
because I think commercial could be accessed easily off of
4
Lark Avenue by turning right into that project from Los
5
Gatos Boulevard.
6
More than one speaker mentioned preservation of
7
existing live oak trees. I think that’s important as well.
8
I don't know about planting more live oaks, perhaps that
9
can be explored, but preservation of what exists out there.
10
MAYOR SPECTOR: Thank you. Mr. Rennie.
11
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
12
I want to add one more to my list.
13
I think you mentioned CUPs. I’d like to suggest
14
an alternate to CUPs. My concern with CUPs is they just add
15
16
a lot of red tape, they add work to Staff because they’ve
17
got to take it through Planning Commission, and it adds
18
work for the Planning Commission. Since we’re sending this
19
to be thought about, I’d like to have it thought about that
20
we put maximums instead of CUPs. If we’re worried about
21
them becoming a restaurant row, let’s say no more than
22
50,000 square feet of restaurant total in the whole thing.
23
I would even be willing to consider that in our downtown if
24
you wanted to remove CUPs from restaurants and we set it as
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1
a maximum. That way it only needs to be reviewed by Staff,
2
and we don’t have to burden the whole system with it. It
3
costs more for the development/landlord and so forth to get
4
it through the whole process, so I’d like the thought of
5
using maximums rather than a review every time.
6
MAYOR SPECTOR: Right now we have Mr. Leonardis.
7
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
8
Spector. One other point that was brought up is a potential
9
reduction in the amount of commercial space. It was
10
mentioned that 400,000-and-something square feet is about
11
double the size of our downtown, it’s about the size of
12
Santana Row, and there are many folks in the public who
13
believe that brings too much intensity, as well the traffic
14
that comes with it, was well the pressure on our downtown
15
16
to survive. I think it should be seriously looked at more
17
in terms of things like neighborhood serving retail centers
18
like King’s Court or the Trader Joe’s center, and more in
19
terms of if we do need a boutique hotel or something out
20
there, that’s how it should be viewed, as opposed to tons
21
and tons of shops in a Santana Row-like manner.
22
MAYOR SPECTOR: Before I go, Ms. Sayoc, you had
23
your hand up.
24
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VICE MAYOR SAYOC: The only thing I wanted to add
2
was just process-wise, amend I’m probably reiterating this,
3
with each series of meetings we have an extensive mailing
4
list now, that we make sure everyone is involved, and
5
similar to with the earlier meetings we invite all four
6
school districts, and since we’re talking about CUPs and
7
different business-related items that we ensure the Chamber
8
is invited. So I just wanted to double check with that.
9
The other thing I want to clarify is, again, if
10
an application were to come in tomorrow that the noticing
11
that we had talked about with just alerting the public
12
earlier on, I’d like to make sure that we do all that we
13
can. I personally like study sessions, so anything that we
14
can do to ensure that the public is aware and has a chance
15
16
to look at it before we deem the application complete.
17
MAYOR SPECTOR: Ms. Jensen.
18
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Following up on the Vice
19
Mayor’s comments, when we started out there was a lot of
20
discussion about how can we change the process so that we
21
didn’t have applications deemed complete before we were in
22
a time crunch to figure out a decision, so that struck me
23
as a comprehensive review of how we brought plans through.
24
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1
Not necessarily a suggestion for an amendment to
2
the Specific Plan, however, to the extent that there is
3
language in the Specific Plan that might be inconsistent
4
with that, then my suggestion would be that we conform the
5
Specific Plan to whatever it is that we changed with
6
respect to that planning process, and if that includes
7
story poles, which are not in the Specific Plan at all and
8
not in the planning process…
9
And those are problematic, because you can’t put
10
up a story pole if you don’t have an application, and
11
people think that the story poles means that the
12
application is done and it’s going to happen, but it
13
happens at a different time. It’s very difficult to figure
14
out how you would make that work, but to the extent that we
15
16
change the planning process and notification process, then
17
I’m with the Vice Mayor.
18
I’m not going to comment on most of the things
19
that were suggested, because I understood that Mr.
20
Leonardis was essentially echoing what the public brought
21
up, and that’s on the record.
22
The only thing that I would comment on with
23
respect to what he mentioned was one, my concern is if you
24
were to put a strip mall, I’m going to call it, like Trader
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1
Joe’s or King’s Court, on the corner of Lark and Los Gatos
2
Boulevard, have you created something that’s more traffic
3
intense than the current Specific Plan or housing? Because
4
presumably you’re going to have a parking lot with cars
5
going in and out on that corner, which is going to conflict
6
with the carwash, the houses, the freeway entrance, et
7
cetera, so is that going to trigger a traffic study if we
8
were to do that kind of thing?
9
The second thing that I wanted to comment on that
10
he had mentioned was widening Los Gatos Boulevard. That
11
doesn’t seem to me to be part of the Specific Plan and I
12
don't know how we could require it, because it wasn’t
13
required as a mitigation measure and it would obviously
14
take a capital investment by the Town to do eminent domain
15
16
for all those properties and have to buy them, and I don't
17
know that we even begin to have that kind of money.
18
The last thing that I would comment on—I’ve been
19
very vocal about this, so I’ll just stick to my guns—is I
20
don’t think that CUPs for commercial on the North 40 is the
21
way to go, and I voted that way earlier. I think that
22
easing restrictions on the downtown makes more sense,
23
particularly in an environment where the retail and
24
restaurant is changing so rapidly and you don’t have to
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show up for basically anything except to eat. The retail
2
environment is I can buy anything sitting at my desk at my
3
computer, so why would I go somewhere and buy it? What I
4
think we should be doing is allowing the downtown to be
5
innovative and respond to the market, and it may be that a
6
big space works today but a small space works tomorrow, so
7
limiting square footages to me doesn’t necessarily allow
8
for that kind of flexibility and innovation, so I don’t
9
think the CUP is the way to go, so I would go on the record
10
as saying that I’m opposed to that amendment.
11
MAYOR SPECTOR: Mr. Rennie.
12
COUNCIL MEMBER RENNIE: Thank you, Mayor Spector.
13
I want to make sure that we remember the intent, at least
14
the intent that I captured from the current Specific Plan
15
16
for protecting downtown, was to try to have neighborhood
17
serving commercial, so that’s one kind of commercial, and
18
then the second part was we were trying to drive for
19
capturing that sort of general merchandizing leakage that
20
goes out of the Town, so nobody is going to come downtown
21
for those. People have fantasized about REI moving over, or
22
something like that.
23
What we originally were trying to protect
24
downtown with was focusing on those two types, and then we
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1
keep forgetting that office is in it also, but maybe the
2
thoughts that GPC and Planning Commission, they can think
3
more about how do we make the stuff that’s near residential
4
be truly neighborhood serving and not shoe stores and
5
handbag stores that draw people away from downtown, and
6
then how do we get the other portion of it to be general
7
merchandizing, again, without creating a food court and a
8
bunch of small stores with dress shops and so forth? I
9
think that’s what the first Specific Plan was trying to get
10
at, but if there aren’t strong enough ways to support it in
11
there, maybe they can come up with something.
12
MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me just comment on some of
13
the things that have been said mainly by Mr. Leonardis and
14
Mr. Rennie.
15
16
I agree that however we ultimately do it, whether
17
it’s through 29.21.190 or whatever, that we try to address
18
the commercial needs that have been previously identified:
19
general merchandise, building materials, and resident
20
serving businesses defined as the north part of Los Gatos
21
and the North 40.
22
I would definitely consider reducing the total
23
amount of commercial square footage within the paradigm of
24
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1
addressing our unmet needs; that was something that Mr.
2
Leonardis mentioned.
3
This one I’m going both ways. When Mr. Rennie
4
said he would consider a 45’ building, I thought oh, no.
5
But then when we talked about having flats with elevators
6
that would accommodate seniors, then I thought maybe it’s
7
not so bad, so I am conflicted on that one. But then when
8
Mr. Leonardis mentioned reducing it to 25’, that seems like
9
a good idea also, again, to make it smaller and more
10
accessible, so I’m balancing both of those, I don't know.
11
Then I think it was Mr. Rennie who mentioned
12
rather than CUPs do the maximum square footage. That is
13
something that the North 40 Advisory Committee explored for
14
several years and actually has it somewhere in the North 40
15
16
Specific Plan, probably in some appendix, but it never made
17
it to the front pages.
18
Mr. Leonardis.
19
COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
20
Spector. A couple more things.
21
One is there was mention of a community pool, and
22
I understand the Quimby Act and those kinds of things, but
23
I always thought bringing the public into the North 40 is a
24
good idea. Every great neighborhood in Los Gatos has a
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great park, whether it’s Blossom Hill Park, or Oak Meadow
2
Park, or you name it, Belgatos Park, they’re all
3
neighborhood type parks, and I don't know why the Town
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would not consider trying to acquire some land if we have
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to pay for it to put in a park that is open to the public,
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or as one of the speakers mentioned, a community pool.
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Morgan Hill has a beautiful community pool, and it gets
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well used as part of their community center. I think Los
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Gatos is lacking that kind of an amenity.
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The other thing I want to mention about the CUP
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process, there is talk of lightening up CUPs downtown, and
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that may be in the future, but one of the speakers said we
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have to live in the present. I just want to see a level
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playing field. I don’t want to see one area of town have a
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competitive advantage over the other area of town in that
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regard.
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We also have to take into consideration our
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downtown residents and what their needs are. There are a
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lot of folks who live around the downtown, and there will
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be folks who live around the businesses in the North 40 as
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well, and we have to protect their quiet enjoyment. We just
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can’t have businesses running and partying until 4:00am. It
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might sound like a great idea. We don’t think of those
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unintended consequences when we’re doing these things. I do
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appreciate the fact that if a number of businesses were to
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come in all at once there would be a backlog of folks
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lining up trying to have their CUP hearings and all those
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kinds of things, but I think we have to come up with a
6
process to handle something like that later on.
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I think the most important thing is that we
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protect the residents, their quiet enjoyment, and make it a
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level playing field for now. If we decide later, or a
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future Council decides later, to loosen up CUP regulations
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to change with the times or whatever downtown, then that
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can also take effect in the North 40, but to give one a
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competitive advantage over the other I don’t think is
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something that should be considered at this point in time I
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think going with the CUP requirements.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: I don’t see any hands. Then I’m
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going to go to Staff. I guess the question would be do you
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need anything else from us. Do you have any questions of
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us?
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LAUREL PREVETTI: I think there are a lot of
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ideas, and thank you to the public as well, since those are
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clearly reflected, and all these ideas, there’s still going
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to be a lot of room for I would say discretion, so Staff
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will do our very best to try to translate this guidance,
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things like what Council Member Rennie suggested in terms
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of increasing the total number of housing units beyond the
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270 in order to achieve our affordable requirement. That’s
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an option that we can explore.
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I was just doing a little bit of math. I think
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our biggest challenge is making sure that we still meet the
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20 units per acre for our Housing Element, and how we
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achieve that while spreading units across is going to be a
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little bit of a mathematical exercise, but we’ll try using
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the different housing types and we might find that having a
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little bit of height latitude will help us get there in
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terms of using some of the product types, but I think
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that’s just something I want to put out there, that we have
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to meet our Housing Element, and that might mean that while
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we’re allowing for the cottage cluster, the cottage cluster
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isn’t going to get us to 20 units per acre, so if we want
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the cottage cluster, then we are going to have to add more
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housing units.
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There are going to be some tradeoffs that will
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have to be explored through this process, and quite
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frankly, the more choices and options that the General Plan
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Committee and Planning Commission have the longer this
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process will likely take, just given the thoughtfulness
2
that I know our groups will want to have making these
3
considerations, so if there is any more specific guidance
4
that you want to give us that is quantitative or numeric,
5
it would be appreciated, because that will help frame us a
6
little tighter for those groups.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me follow up on that, Ms.
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Prevetti. It seems to me that the quantitative would come
9
by virtue of the number of Council members who mentioned a
10
certain item. For example, I heard several Council Members
11
talk about spreading the housing throughout the acreage.
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Now I hear you saying that could be difficult under state
13
law, but couldn’t the direction input that you give to the
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General Plan Committee come by virtue of the number of
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Council Members that mentioned an item? I mean maybe there
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is one person who mentioned swimming pools, but there were
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four who mentioned spreading the units throughout the 40
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acres. Wouldn’t that help give prioritization and direction
20
to the GPC and then the Planning Commission?
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LAUREL PREVETTI: I think it helps, but again, I
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think ultimately we’re going to be down to motions, and
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we’re going to expect the General Plan Committee to make a
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motion and the Planning Commission to make a motion. In
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this process tonight we’ve chosen not to do that, and so
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we’re hearing the direction, but ultimately we are going to
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need to get to specifics, because we will need to translate
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all of this into redline language that hopefully then any
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developer would pick up and know precisely what we’re
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hoping to achieve. I just put that out there, because the
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20 units per acre is one of our bigger constraints, and so
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we may need to look at what those tradeoffs are.
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The open space is a separate issue, so we’re
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going to have to define open space. I think we heard loud
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and clear there’s an interest in making sure that it is
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more defined, so we can get there in that respect, but we
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have a lot of levers, so to speak, that we’re going to be
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playing with.
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We’re hearing reduce potentially the commercial.
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Well, if we’re reducing commercial and limiting the amount
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of housing and want open space, then we just have to make
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sure we’re still a balanced plan.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: Let me follow up on that. Why
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would that necessarily be difficult? Let’s assume that the
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Council said reduce commercial and spread the housing
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throughout and something else that you mentioned. Why would
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that be a difficult concept to bring forward to the General
2
Plan Committee?
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ROBERT SCHULTZ: Bringing it forward in
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practicality, if you keep the same number of units and
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reduce the square footage, and again, that’s where we’re
6
going to have to do some mathematical calculations, is
7
there just space that’s not available? So let’s say the
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last developer comes along and you’re at 270 units and
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you’re at your maximum of 200 square feet and he has a lot
10
there, and you tell him we’ve made all the requirements,
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you can’t build anything on your property, so now have a
12
taking, so we have to look at all those levers and how they
13
work. If you make the units smaller you are hopefully, as
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we’ve heard, increasing open space, but has it been too
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much now? Is there going to be extra land, is more what I’m
17
concerned about when it’s said and done, that it hasn’t
18
been determined what’s going to go there.
19
So those are a lot of the mathematical
20
calculations that I think we’re going to have to play with
21
and see how many units can go on there and where the best
22
place to put cottage clusters are, and bring those through
23
the process. I don’t think it’s impossible, but what I
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think we’re saying is from Staff’s standpoint we might take
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some liberties and try to work with those numbers and what
2
you’ve said and come up with some of our own ideas also on
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how it can work and what the public has stated.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: All right, following up on that
5
also. Well, I’ll skip that. Ms. Jensen.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I understood your
7
statement, Ms. Prevetti, quite differently I think from the
8
Mayor when you said quantitative and numerical
9
specifications. I had understood you to mean, for example,
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I want 40% open space, I want ten houses in the Lark
11
District, I want 20 houses in the Transition District
12
versus four people said X. Am I right about what you had
13
intended with that?
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LAUREL PREVETTI: I was thinking more in terms of
15
16
Specific Plan language, so if there is any numeric guidance
17
that you’d like to provide on any of the suggestions that
18
are already on the table.
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COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: Because if we were
20
viewing it as quantitative X number of people mentioned
21
such-and-such, that’s why I asked my question at the start,
22
whether we were doing a motion or not, and whether we were
23
simply listing things versus arguing them, because I would
24
not want the number of people that mentioned a particular
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item to now have weight given that we haven’t made any
2
motions; I thought we were simply throwing out suggestions.
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MAYOR SPECTOR: As did I. Mr. Leonardis.
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COUNCIL MEMBER LEONARDIS: Thank you, Mayor
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Spector. A question for Ms. Prevetti. Are we hamstrung by
6
this 20 units per acre? In other words, if we reduce the
7
amount of commercial space, could we not reduce the amount
8
per acre of housing and spread the 270 or the 364 over all
9
three zones and have enough space?
10
ROBERT SCHULTZ: There would still need to be
11
13.5 acres that are capable of putting 20 units per acre on
12
that. Now, in the other acreage you could have less
13
density, but does that mean like I just said, you’re
14
leaving acres that are not available to do anything on, and
15
16
that’s the calculations that I think are going to be most
17
concerning to us.
18
MAYOR SPECTOR: Other questions? Ms. Jensen.
19
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I’m sorry; I just want to
20
make sure that that question gets answered so that I think
21
that my understanding is correct or incorrect. If we change
22
the 13.5 acres that are zoned 20 units per acre, we must
23
now go change our Housing Element to find those units
24
somewhere else, whether it be Los Gatos Lodge, Los Gatos
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Boulevard, wherever it is. So it’s not simply a matter of
2
spreading it and not having a consequence. That 20 units
3
per acre needs to be the 13.5 acres, and if it’s not, if
4
it’s 9 acres at 20 units per acre, then 5.5 acres need to
5
go somewhere else.
6
ROBERT SCHULTZ: Right, and it’s that density
7
level. I thought the question that I heard was if you had
8
270 units but they were spread over 40 acres, so your
9
density is not at 20 units per acre, you have not met the
10
requirement is that’s where they determine it’s affordable.
11
So if you want to make all of them cluster cottage, which
12
is 8 units per acre, you’re not doing anything our Housing
13
Element told you and you’d have to re-designate. It’s that
14
20 units per acre that we have to obtain and then determine
15
16
from there where the other acres need to go to.
17
The only other thing I would say for tonight is
18
we still need that motion to move forward.
19
MAYOR SPECTOR: I have it here in a big circle,
20
but we still have questions and discussions. Any other
21
questions? Staff, anything from you? All right, does
22
anybody remember the motion? Ms. Jensen.
23
COUNCIL MEMBER JENSEN: I think that the motion
24
that was requested and that I’ll make is that we follow a
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process whereby these suggestions that were given by the
2
Council tonight be taken to the General Plan Committee for
3
a public hearing and consideration to accept, deny, change,
4
however they so desire, and then it goes to the Planning
5
Commission for the same process, and then finally comes
6
back to the Town Council for a decision.
7
MAYOR SPECTOR: Second. Discussion? Seeing none,
8
all in favor? Passes unanimously. Thank you community,
9
Staff, and Council.
10
(END)
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